(5) Dark Hunters: The Missing Man
by Dgray3994
Summary: Sam's gone missing in the middle of a hunt. That was two weeks ago and Ali, Dean, Cas, and Danni have come up with squat. With Danni now out on a mission to find some sort of clue, Ali and Dean get a surprise visit from a familiar friend, but her news is all but happy. Sam is alive, but not. Enter Bee, a hunter and friend, who knows one specific skill, dead languages...


The Missing Man

_They say that silence can be deafening, that within the silence, every other thing you would never hear becomes so loud that it physically painful. That blackness, while blinding in and of itself, can seem to last forever. The cold is a bit more icy, the feel of rock, harder to the point where it slices at the slightest touch, but nothing, nothing is worse than the feeling of being lost._

"_Dean?" And that one little whisper sounded like a freight train. My heart echoed over the sound of my voice, the pulse in my ears was louder than my breathing, and that was as rapid as a waterfall, one deafening noise cascading over the other in the silence of the darkness. "Dean… Help!"_

_I didn't know if he could hear me, didn't have a clue as to the whereabouts of my phone or if it was even on, but I did know one thing…_

"_Dean…" my breath quaked as I finally said the words that I had been fearing since it happened… "Sam's gone._"

The gentle hand on my shoulder rocked me out of the darkness and I sighed, opening my eyes in the soft glow of the sun that edged in from the sides of the curtains and with a deep breath, I looked at Joseph.

"Hey," I whispered and he smiled, as much as he could before he leaned down and gave me a hug, "you okay?"

"You were crying," he said softly and slipped away from the bed, "so, I thought I would wake you up."

"Thanks," I took his hand and kissed it softly, not something that you would normally do to a seventeen-year-old, but hell, he needed the support as much as I did. "Where is everyone?"

"Nick's at work, Ari's in the kitchen," he answered and stood by the door, "coffee's made, and Cas stopped by to drop some things off."

Cas was here? And, where was the other one because there was one more body on that list unaccounted for.

"Okay," I shifted, sitting up slowly, "I'll be down in a few."

Joseph left the room, closing the door until it was only open a sliver, which seemed to amplify the voices in the kitchen, one deep, throaty voice, and the other, the higher pitch of a fifteen year old. I shook my head, knowing that those voices weren't their normal playful selves and reached for the blankets.

Grabbing a flannel from Sam's side of the bed, I slipped it on over the pajama shorts and tank that I had worn to bed, and hugged it around me. It still smelled like him. Two weeks since he disappeared, two weeks with every lead followed up, with every known monster investigated, and still nothing. Sam was gone. I brought the collar up to my nose, breathed in the heavy scent of his aftershave, body wash, the tang of sweat on his skin that still lingered there, before I closed my eyes tightly and held on for another day.

At the bottom of the stairs, I turned right and made my way through the living room, turned and slipped into the kitchen, where I stopped dead and felt absolutely confused. Dean, the one person Joseph had forgotten, sat on one chair, slouched down, legs wide, arms crossed over his chest with a pissed off look on his face, staring at Ari, who was sitting directly across from him, but leaning forward, her eyes narrowed mirroring everything he did.

I rolled my eyes, walked over to the coffee pot and grabbed a mug. Joseph was right, Cas had stopped by, and it looked like he had brought an entire grocery store with him, right down to five different kinds of powdered creamer. I glanced at Dean, about to ask what the hell was up, but he was still stuck in that contest and I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was going to lose.

"What did Cas want?" I questioned quietly, not in the mood to listen to the two of them bitch yet.

"Same old, no new information, no lock on a locator spell, no change in any radio waves he's been getting." Dean grumbled under his breath, clear enough for me to understand, low enough that he wasn't breaking the contact." Oh, and he went shopping. Apparently, that's a _thing_ that he does with you?"

"Used to be, when he practically lived here." I replied, stirring in the creamer before I turned and leaned against the counter, my gaze flitting between the two of them. "So, what did you do to piss her off?"

"Dean promised me ice cream," Ari growled through clenched teeth and I smiled behind the mug as I brought it to my lips. One thing you never did was mess with a Porter's ice cream. "He still hasn't paid up."

"How many days?"

Dean shifted, "You didn't finish what I asked you to do."

"I did so." Ari stated defensively. "And, I got an A on it, so pay up, Dean!"

"How many days?" I repeated, and that was it, Dean shifted again, looked up at me, and I heard Ari _hmmph_ in triumph.

"Three," Dean replied.

"You've been holding out on ice cream for three days?" I blinked, unsure if I was even processing this right before he cocked his head as if to ask _that's what's got you_? "I'm guessing this is about the science project?"

"Yes," Ari hissed and rose, taking off to the living room to come back with the graded rubric. I took the paper, looked it over, and smiled up at her. She wasn't lying, that was an A. Shrugging, I turned to Dean and handed him the paper.

"Get the woman some ice cream," I smiled as he snatched the paper and sat up. Ari giggled and ran out of the room, probably to get dressed and ready to go, never mind the fact that it was nine in the morning. "What was the deal?"

"She finishes her assignment and gets it in on time and I buy her a sundae, but she had a certain time frame and she needed to get a passing grade." Dean shrugged, stood and moved to grab a coffee mug, setting the paper on the table before he crowded against me, leaned down and kissed the top of my head.

"You actually made that deal," I smiled, letting the spark in his green eyes brighten the darkness I felt, "you realize she's an honor roll student, right?"

"Never occured to me, just figured if it worked on Sammy…" he paused, cleared his throat and moved towards the pot, quiet as if concentrating on the liquid making it to the ceramic mug. "um, if it worked on Sammy, might work on her too, didn't know she was a genius."

"I know," I reached out, placed a hand on his lower arm and gave him gentle squeeze. "Heard from Danni?"

"Guntersville, Alabama," he replied, clearing his throat, "she's hunting with a few girls down there, seeing about a lead that Cas picked up two nights ago."

"You can go with her, Dean," I whispered, knowing the answer to this, having been over it so many times in the last two weeks.

"No," he whispered, shaking his head, "no, I need to be here. If Sam," he stopped, and we had been over this too, "_when_ Sam gets back, this will be the first place he comes to, so, like I said before, we stay in one place and both get him back."

"You're avoiding other issues being here, Dean," I sighed and took his spot at the table to look out at the cul-de-sac, "bigger issues than Sam being gone."

"There isn't a bigger issue than Sammy, Al, you know that, I know that," he sat down across from me and took my hand, "and Danni knows that, which is why she volunteered to do the footwork. She couldn't sit here and watch you, and she sure as hell wasn't going to listen to me bitch about you being here alone if I took off."

"Which is what created the bigger issue." I rubbed my forehead, and cleared my throat. "Don't let me become the distance between the two of you."

"This is Sam, this is ABOUT Sam, Ali," he snapped, "and I know you get it, and I sure as hell hope she does too, but I think we covered just about everything we could to figure out where the hell he went."

The light above the basement door flashed twice, grabbing my attention. The only time that light came on is if someone triggered the door in the research room, and all four of us were upstairs. Dean looked at me, then turned and looked at the light before we both slowly stood and made our way down.

It didn't surprise me that the 1911 was in his hand by the time we got to the bottom of the stairs, didn't shock me at all when I heard that slide click back, but when I reached out to press the release, his snapping my hand back had almost shocked me enough to get him clocked.

Spinning at him, I glared up, but he didn't meet my eyes, he was scanning the room. I reached out, put my hand on his chest and followed the beat of his heart with my fingers while my eyes followed his line of vision. There, in the back corner, hidden in the darkness beside the electrical box was a set of glowing purple eyes.

I sighed, released him, and turned in that direction, before I reached out and placed my hand on the top of the gun. Dean let me press it down, taking the aim off the girl that stepped out of the darkness.

"You realize there are spiderwebs in that corner of the basement, right?" I asked cautiously, but with pure spiteful intent, and suddenly, the little gothic demon started dancing in her spot, trying to make sure there weren't any clinging to her.

"Ugh! Gross!" she snapped and stood right in front of me, "why don't you clean your basement?"

"That would make it too easy for you," I grinned and watched her sigh, but just as quickly as she eased up, she stiffened again.

"Why is there always a Winchester with you? If it's not one, it's the other, and if it's not them, it's an angel!" She growled just as Dean's hand came around my waist and I caught the gleam of the demon blade in his hand. Turning towards him, I pressed on his chest. "And, they're always armed."

"She's not going to hurt anyone." I whispered as I felt the rage shiver through his muscles.

"She's a demon!" He stated, and I rolled my eyes, "how the hell is she in your basement?"

"She's allowed in," I explained, reaching out to the wrist that held the blade, and slowly slipped down to his fingers, caressing them with mine, the tether between us calming him, "the purple eyes is the magic that Rowena put on her, to allow her through the wards. It's just her, Dean, no one else."

"Who is she?" he snapped, not lowering the blade, but I could feel the way he eased before I stepped back and pressed the trigger for the door. The research room opened and I stepped through, grasping Lynx by the shirt as I tugged her passed him. "Ali, seriously, there's a demon in your house."

"A powered down demon," I acknowledged as he came in and closed the door behind the three of us. "This is Lynx, you've met her before, briefly."

"When?" He had taken up guarding the door as I flipped on the rest of the lights and booted up the laptops.

"That one time at Quantico," I waved it off because I was pretty sure that was the hunt, "anyway, you have an angel, I have Lynx." Dean scoffed and tucked the blade away, not that I really thought he was going to put it anywhere he couldn't grab it, before sitting down at the end of the table. Lynx eyed him over, never taking her gaze from him for longer than three seconds as she scooted closer to me at the opposite end of the table. "Anyway," I turned to her, hoping that Dean would behave and sighed, "anything new?"

"Actually," she started but I watched the excitement of being around the hunter slowly fade, "yeah, but it's not good, P, not good at all."

"Okay, so Crowley sent you here with some less than impressive information," I sighed, rubbing my nose, "but it's still information we didn't have before. So, what is it?"

"He's still there," she shrugged.

"Still…" Dean sat forward, "still where?"

"There," she rolled her eyes, "still in New Bedford."

"What?" I closed my eyes because that was Dean's _I'm about to flay your ass_ voice, and I stepped between them.

"I said it's not good." Lynx shrugged, but looking at her, I could clearly see she was terrified of the man that stood in the room with us. "You can't find him on a locator spell because technically he's not Sam Winchester anymore."

"How? Why?" It seemed I didn't even need to be there for this line of questioning to go down.

"Listen, Hot Stuff, if you want more information, you're gonna have to find someone named…" she dug around the many pockets of the tripp pants she wore until she pulled out a piece of paper she had crumpled up. Straightening it quickly, she squinted her eyes at the name, "named… Matilda Le Fay."

"Le Fay?" I whispered, I knew that name, but couldn't place it.

"What the hell were you hunting that got him mixed up with a witch like that?" Lynx questioned and I shook my head.

"We were called out there for a shifter. Said something about people going missing at Fort Taber," I whispered, my sight fading back to that night, where we searched the old tunnels, only lit by the LEDs of our flashlights, but the graffiti should have told me something was wrong. That something besides a shifter was down there because... "Jesus."

"Hey, there," Dean's voice whispered in my ear as I slumped back against him. I had seen the paintings under the art, the symbolism that stood out even from below the fresh coats of spray. "Easy, Kid, take a breath."

"There were hieroglyphs on the walls," I mumbled and shook against him as I felt my stomach turn.

"What would the Egyptians want with an old fort?"

"Not all hieroglyphs are Egyptian, Idiot," Lynx replied, and the tensing of Dean's muscles behind me cleared my mind just a bit.

I shook from his grasp, grabbed the cell, and hooked it up to the computer, pulling all of the pictures up on the large screen. Flipping through what I could, I stopped dead and stared at the way the tunnels split, but it wasn't the graffiti that I was staring at but the way the light hit one of them at a perfect angle, letting me see the words underneath.

"Is that…?" Lynx questioned.

I nodded, "some sort of Enochian." I finished and Dean sighed, "but," I blew up the picture and shook my head, "that's Arabic." Scanning over again, I shook my head, "and that's…"

"Akkadian." Dean replied, stepping closering, "what the hell does it say?"

"Basically," my hand shook as I ran my fingers along the screen, "all praise the city of the dead."

"What the hell does that mean?" Dean looked down at me as I shook my head and flipped through a few more of the pictures. "Wait," he stopped me, made a circle with his hand and then pointed at it, "enlarge that." Doing as he asked, I stared, trying to figure out what it said but he just shook his head, "not good."

"Wanna explain?" Lynx questioned.

"Yeah, after I get my brother back." And, with that, Dean turned and left the room. I took a deep breath, looked at Lynx, who shrugged and blinked out, before I found myself staring at the screen again.

I entered the kitchen, listened closely to the goings-on in the house and tried to pinpoint everyone. Ari was in the room, singing completely offkey, which was great because that gave me a direction, Joseph was in his room talking loudly on a Skype call to one of the dozen or so people that he went to school with about some project due at the end of the week, Nick was at work, and Dean… wait, it was way too quiet.

I paced through the house, checking every room even if it was occupied, and finally stopped when I caught just the hint of his voice from where I stood on the stairwell. Slowly, I moved through the living room, slid the glass door open and stepped out onto the porch. The pitch of his voice, beyond irritated and angry, grew louder as I moved down the stairs and out around the edge of the house, completely oblivious to the fact that I was still in my pajama shorts and Sam's flannel shirt.

"Because, I need… I want you here," he snapped into the phone, and I watched his shoulders slouch as I stepped back against the wall, eyeing him with worry. "He's my brother, Dan, I can't just leave him… yes, of course, it is…" and, that was sarcasm, "just stop, for a second and listen to me, please," which changed to complete begging, "I love you," not a shock, I had heard it plenty of times but… "more than anything, but Sam, you know he comes first, always." Okay, that might not have been a total shock, but the way he said it. "No, no! Jesus, Danni, just listen to me, _please_! Whatever has him has nothing to do with her and I could use all the help…" he breathed in deeply before letting it out, "thank you. Yeah, sure, whenever you get here, I'll have him pop you over." Oh, and there went the truce, "because I can't wait, Danni, it's been two weeks and this is the first solid lead we got." Dean turned, stopped and looked at me before he backed up to the nearest tree and just let his back drop against it, all the fight going out of him. "Fine, no… no, I get it, it's fine." His eyes came up to mine, the worry and uncertainty in them was real before he started pulling the phone away from his ear. "Yeah, you too. Bye."

For a moment, we sat there looking at each other, not sure what to go with, uncertain about exactly what we should be saying, but I finally cleared my throat and stepped closer. Dean slowly sunk down to sit on the soft dirt, pulling his knees up as he put his lower arms on them, still playing with the phone and I smoothed the shirt under my ass to sit beside him.

He looked down at me, glanced over the bareness of my legs and sighed, looking away. "Aren't you cold? You're always cold."

"It's like eighty out here," I shrugged, reached over and took his hand, threading my fingers through his as I brought it closer to me. "I don't ever think I've heard you say _bye_ on a call before."

"Really?" He knew it was a distraction but the tone of his voice was cute. "No, I have, I'm sure of it."

"She coming up?" There went the smile.

"She's going to drive up, and when she gets here, Cas is going to wing her to New Bedford, but she's still seventeen hours away. She's not going to leave the Stang, so, she's gonna get to us when she gets to us."

"I'm sorry." I leaned my head on his arm, tucked myself in closer, and sighed. I was pretty sure this was partly my fault.

"Hey," he put his chin on my head, "you didn't do anything."

"Well, I didn't do nothing, either." I closed my eyes and thoughts slammed back to that day again. The echo of our voices in the empty tunnels, the way the darkness seemed to swallow everything, including him. Sam calling my name and how it grew further and further away no matter how much I stood still. I felt my body shaking, closed my eyes tighter, clenched my teeth, and breathed through the feeling of his hand slipping away from mine. "He's gone because of me."

"What?" Dean turned, forced me to look up by placing his hand on my cheek, pinky slipping under my jaw and I blinked open my eyes, even as they stung with tears. "You didn't make this happen, Ali, no one _made_ this happen. You were doing your job, so was Sam, we just… we just need to find a way to get him back."

"I'd hate to interrupt," the deep gravel of Cas' voice had us both whipping in the same direction to look at it, "but, I just received some information from Lynx that I thought might be prudent."

"Sam's stuck in the City of the Dead somewhere in New Bedford." Dean offered, nearly rolling his eyes as he stared at the tree. Cas raised a brow and looked at me, before taking in the fact that I was still not dressed.

"Lynx stopped here first," Cas nodded, not waiting for an answer, but then shook his head, "fine, can we go inside?"

"Cas, why are you blushing?" Dean laughed as he licked his lips, trying to diffuse the fact that he was just as emotional as I was.

"She's not wearing underwear," he stated, his eyes round as saucers and I followed his gaze down to realize, I wasn't exactly sitting like a lady either.

I let go of Dean, wrapped the flannel around me and stood, storming passed them into the house, even with the sound of Dean's laugher following me up the stairs.

Dean sat in the corner recliner, one foot crossed over the knee of the other, elbow on the arm, running his finger over his lips as he stared off into nothingness. Cas seemed to pace as I placed things into a bag, making sure I had every book and weapon I could think of, zippering it just as Joseph came around the corner. He smiled as he spotted Cas, walked up to him and hugged him quickly before he spotted Dean.

"Are you going to find Sam?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah," I smiled the best I could, "yeah, Dean, Cas… we're going to bring him home."

"Good," Joseph nodded but before he left the room, he turned to me, "I miss him." And, then he was gone.

I closed my eyes again, steadied myself for a moment, and then went back to stocking the first-in bag, the journal going directly into the front pocket. It had all the notes from the first trip out there two weeks ago, everything I could remember, and everything Sam and I had done until we went into the fort.

I waited for Joseph to go back upstairs before I turned and sat on the couch. There was something I needed to tell them, something that I really hoped they wouldn't shoot down because it was definitely something we needed. Back up.

"I called Jones," I spoke softly, slowly, and looked each one of them in the eyes. "I know that the two of you just don't see things eye-to-eye…"

"You called Jones, or his daughter?" Dean asked suddenly, and that made me nod, because it wasn't Jones that he had a problem with.

"No, Jonesie, not Cruella." I sighed, "I stopped taking cases from her the minute she put me up with that half-wit Gruber."

"Is that a Die Hard reference?"

"No, you ass, his name really is Gruber." I shook my head, trying to get my focus back and ran a hand through my hair, "back on the subject, dude, keep up," which, of course, only lead him to flip me off. "Okay, so I called Jones, sent him the pictures of our little hieroglyph art collection and he suggested one thing."

"Leave Sammy there to rot?" Dean growled, and I stared him down.

"No, what is your problem?" I stood, moved over towards him and slapped his leg down so that I could stand between them, enough to get into his face. Placing both hands on his scruffed cheeks, I leaned in close, "Jones would never let one of you go, and I have no idea where this hostility came from, but Dean, he's like Bobby was, once you're in, you're in for life. He didn't suggest leaving him there, he suggested bringing in Bee."

"Bee, like Bee-Bee? Tall chick, rode in on a Harley? Has a thing for Cas? That Bee?" Dean rattled off that list like he needed more confirmation than the TSA before they let you through security.

"Yes, Dean," I grinned at him like a fucking idiot because it seemed she made an impression, "that Bee. She's a good hunter and apparently is in the area, not only that she has some pretty neat specialities that might come in handy."

"You mean besides the blade thing?" I backed away from him, still smiling because I knew, if anything, his knife obsession would definitely be something they bonded over.

"She speaks in tongues quite well." Cas added, and when the two of us looked up at him, I was pretty sure he was blushing because he caught onto the double entendre. "You know what I mean."

"Sure, Cas," Dean laughed, stood from the chair as I took a look around and shrugged. "You good?"

"Looks like I have everything. Did you make sure the car was packed?"

"You're kidding, right? When is Baby not ready to rock and roll?" He grabbed his jacket, the one that hid the angel blade pretty well in the sleeve and the demon blade in the inside pocket, not that he really needed it since it was _eighty_.

"Well, there was this one time…" I started but he stepped up, dragged his hand through my hair and gripped it tightly before stopping me by kissing my forehead.

"Don't bother finishing that," he winked and slipped out of the room.

When the door closed behind him, I looked up at the confused angel. "What's the matter, Cas?"

"I don't remember a time that the Impala wasn't stocked," he shrugged.

"Albuquerque," I smiled, patted him on the stomach and moved to grab my shoes. "_Guys_!" I hollered up the stairs, listened to the pause in the noise before the two of them came barreling down. Both stopped in front of me, eyeing Cas like the world was going to end because he was such a strict babysitter but I shook my head. "Cas is coming with this time." Ari just sighed, apparently she liked grilling Cas on historical events. "The three of us are headed back towards New Bedford, we need to find Sam."

"It's fine, Mom," Joseph smiled, "bring him home."

"And when you get back, Dean can take me out for ice cream, maybe Sam and Cas will have some too." Ari smiled, but I knew this was hard for her, the three men had become such a big part of their lives that missing one of them seemed to throw it all off. "Can you do one thing? Can you make Dean promise to not wear his boots back into the house if he kills another shifter? They smell so bad!"

I nodded, a grin plastered on my face because this was such a girl problem apparently. "I will make sure that Dean leaves his boots outside."

"Good," she walked over and hugged me, leaning her head in so that I could give her a kiss on top of it before she outright hugged the angel.

Joseph did the same, squeezing tightly before he followed his sister and hugged Cas. While he had spent months with us as a family of five, he still hadn't gotten used to the affections of children, Jack hadn't even hugged him like that before, which I found a little weird. Grabbing the first-in bag, and Cas grabbing the others, the two of us walked out the door, closing and locking it behind us, warding it with one simple word.

"Praesidio," I whispered, watched the wards light up, and ducked down into the backseat of the Impala.

**Chapter 2**

Once in the flow of traffic, or more to the point, once Dean stopped yelling at the people in the ecoboost cars that flew by him on the Mass Pike, I found the courage to sit up a little and take out the journal. Flipping through the photos I had managed to print out, I took a deep breath and began to take them apart, finding the odd little symbols and words hidden behind the graffiti.

"Can I see?" Cas questioned, which got me to look up at his curious expression. Handing him off the pictures I had already taken care of, he turned back around and started flipping through them. "Jones definitely sent you to the right hunter."

"I'm sure her use of tongues comes in handy… a lot." Dean grinned as Cas gave him a stone cold glare.

"Don't worry, Cas. Dean's just pissed because someone can use their tongue better than he can." I mumbled in the backseat and smiled as Dean's head rolled, which meant his eyes probably did too. "It's not everyday that someone puts his signature move to shame, is it, Dean?"

"You know, you're still small enough to toss from the car and no one will bat an eye." Dean snarked over the backseat but I didn't even bother looking up because that was the weakest come back ever and he knew it. "So, where are we meeting her?"

"A place called the Green Bean." I answered, going back to the journal. So far, I had a page full of the glyphs down in the book and not a clue as to what they said or if they were in the right order. "Ugh, I think I need more coffee."

"Better step on it, don't know if I can take you uncaffeinated."

"You can't take me at all," I whispered, head bent incase something went flying, "you have a girlfriend."

And, for some reason, Cas laughed at that one.

The Impala rolled up to the parking space like Dean owned the joint, but I think it was more because of the Ducati that sat in the parking spot beside him. I don't think I ever remember Dean drooling so much.

"Dude, it's just a bike," I groaned as I got out, but I knew differently. This wasn't just a machine, this was Bee's equivalent to Dean's Baby.

"You're kidding right?" He snarked, his voice going higher like a teenage boy with a crush. "Last time she had a Harley, this… _this_ is a Ducati."

"Yeah, I have those with my coffee every morning I walk into a hoity-toity bistro too, doesn't change the fact that it's a bike." I was so going to die for this.

"Ali," oh, he broke out the serious voice, "this is a classic, they don't make these anymore, especially with custom paint jobs like…" he paused, got down closer to the bike and narrowed his eyes, "is that a honeycomb?"

"Why, yes," Bee's voice spoke up from behind us as she moved to stand beside me, leather jacket covered arms crossed like she was pissed that anyone was near her bike, "yes, it is."

Dean stood, turned slowly, and looked at her, stared her right in the eyes and gave a little off-kilter grin. "Where'd you steal it?"

"Steal it?" She laughed, "I didn't steal it, I bought it."

"Oh, yeah, how?" Bee turned, and the four of us headed into the cafe. "You're a hunter, unless your a wiz at fraud or you're holding something major over someone's head, there's no way you bought it."

Bee stopped, turned again, freezing Dean in his place as I tried not to laugh, and Cas took a big breath, ready to step between them. "I didn't steal it, I paid for it, outright," she turned again, moved in towards the table she obviously had reserved, or dumped all her stuff on, and I caught her eye as we all sat down. She waited for Dean to sit before she finished, "with the money I stole."

Dean started choking on air about the time the barista came over, smiling away, and waited patiently for the green-eyed wonder to catch his breath. I placed my order, Cas politely declined, Bee grabbed a hot chocolate because she had enough tea to last her the rest of the day, and Dean finally breathed out a black coffee as his request.

"So," Bee whispered, blowing on her hot chocolate, "Samifer is missing, what happened?"

"Samifer?" Dean questioned, raising a brow.

"Sorry, old habit," she cleared her throat and started again, "where is he?"

"According to all sources," I sighed, sliding the pictures across to her, "here."

Bee flipped through them, her brow furrowing more and more with each one she flipped until she was shaking her head. She looked up at me suddenly, "where the hell is this?"

"Fort Taber." Cas offered, "more to the point, under it."

"This is…" she sighed, going back to the pictures, "no, this is…" With a final huff, she looked up, "journal."

Cas and Dean looked at me questioningly as I slid the purple journal over without hesitation. She matched the less than stellar doodles I had done in the car to the ones on the pictures and then she pushed it aside.

I picked up my coffee, tapped Dean on the arm to do the same. Cas had already started clearing off the table and when I was finished taking a sip of the perfectly made cup of joe, she had an entire map laid out just with pictures.

"Tell me what happened," her eyes came up to rest on mine and I took a deep breath, not sure I was ready to relive that again, but I felt Dean's warm, solid fingers slip through mine, grounding me as I slipped back into the memories.

"It was a hunt, that's all it was supposed to be, a shifter in the walls of the fort. Men went missing, came back not exactly right, so Sam and I went in. I had everything researched, Sam came up with anything he could grab and it all pointed that way, pointed to an easy job, but the thing ran." I blinked away the darkness and shook my head. "We got down in the basement, found the entrance to the tunnels and started following them. I started taking pictures, more because we were going to find our way back to wherever we stopped. We needed more information about the layout. It went dark, like the kind of dark you feel when you're at the end of everything, like there will never be light again. It oozed shadows, even without a spark. I was holding onto Sam. We kept to our usual rules, no one moved, no one let go, but as he talked, it was like he was moving further way, stretching out, thinning. Before I knew what happened, I wasn't holding him anymore, I was alone in the darkness. The fucking cell didn't even light up, I didn't know if the call went through, but I could hear him."

I took my hand from Dean's, clenched my fingers together to ease the stiffness in the joints, the cold I had felt in them for two weeks, and I tried to catch my breath before I looked at her again.

"I felt him," I whispered, "felt Dean from fourteen hundred miles away, that was the only way I knew he was on the line, but it was so silent, like there was nothing, like it was just empty. So, I talked, I said his name. I told him Sam was gone, and I remember the feeling of closing my eyes."

"What happened next?" I didn't realize I had been watching her fingers move over the pictures as I spoke, but when she asked, that one finger stopped on the very spot that I woke up in.

"Dean." I replied, his name and nothing else, and her eyes traveled to his.

It took just a while to come back, to not feel the chill, by then we had been sitting in the cafe for hours, coffee and food moving and flowing like water, still going over the pictures, but I didn't remember most of the conversations, just the cold feeling deep in my bones.

"You think he's okay?" I asked, which got the attention of the others, "Sam," I whispered, "you think he's okay?"

"It's hard to tell," Bee replied and Dean shifted in his seat, like he wasn't expecting that answer, his fingers going immediately to the back of my neck. His thumb swiped softly back and forth just under the line of my hair and he inched just a bit closer in the chair until his thigh hit mine. "From these markings, which I'm going to guess is not all of the tunnel, you're looking at the possibility of at least eight different languages. Everything stems from another but there are variations that help tell them apart. Old Persian, here," she pointed to one of the photos, "Enochian, Greek, Akkadian, Tamil, and Arabic here." Going down the line she made sure to let us know just where she was seeing them. "Georgian, and Sanskrit. There are a few more, but I think those are a different language all together, not one that most people are privy to."

"What do you mean? They all look the same." Dean mumbled, sitting forward to look over whatever she had written down. "This one," he tapped on a symbol that he didn't recognize, "this one is different."

"It's a combination of Tamil and Sanskrit, not something most people would be able to point out," she grinned up at him, "good eyes, and from what I can guess, because it's so faded, is it means _death_ or _dead."_

"All praise the city of the dead," I whispered and felt her eyes on me. Cas reached across the table and let the pad of his finger run down my cheek. "Sam's in there."

"Close, whoever did the translation got it just a little bit off." She shrugged. "It doesn't say praise, it says raise."

"Like zombies?" Dean's confusion was right there in his eyes. "This is a city full of zombies?"

"Possibly," Bee cleared her throat and started at the lower left corner. "Roughly translated, from what we have, it says: with each new life, a soul is torn, a body left, a gift reborn to walk the earth in light on distant shores, until the darkness comes once more."

"A fucking nursery rhyme?" Dean closed his eyes and let his head fall back. "So, what, they take the soul and give the body out as vessel?"

"Something like that," Bee reached out and touched Dean's arm. "The point is, until we know the whole story, or get the whole translation, I'm not putting stock in this. There's loopholes with ancient magic, Winchester, so somewhere in the text is the way out of this. We just have to find it."

"So, what are we waiting for?" His voice was neutral, like he had tucked every emotion away and I reached for his thigh, hoping that maybe I could ease whatever his fear was through the tether. Bee looked at her watched.

"One o'clock." She smiled, started tucking all of her stuff into the bag and slide the pictures and the journal back to me.

"What happens at one?" Cas questioned, speaking up for the first time in a while.

"A friend gets us into those tunnels." And, with that she stood, slipped everything into her bag and waited for the rest of us to get the clues.

"You know, something a little more than a fifteen minute warning would have been nice." Dean grumbled as he pulled into the parking spot beside Bee once again, but this time we were looking at the backside of Fort Taber.

"You still made it here with three minutes to spare." I whispered, tucking the spectrum into the sheath hiding in my boot as I got out of the car. He looked down at me, even as I avoided his eyes, my vision set on the building in front of us. My heart was going a mile a minute, I could almost feel it in my temples, but it was the rough slide of those calloused fingers against the back of my neck that gave me some relief. "I don't know if I can go back down there, Dean."

"You're not going to lose me," he said softly against my ear, his other arm slipping around my waist, but the solid feeling of his form behind me didn't do a damn thing for the fear. "Cas will be there, so will Bee, and you will have me."

"I had Sam," I sighed, "and I lost him."

"And, we'll get him back." He breathed out slowly, like he was using the connection to keep it together. Bee moved up to stand beside us, Cas stepped up to her right and I felt Dean huff a laugh, "you look like a tourist."

And, she did. The average sized Canon T6 was hooked around her neck, but the larger light that was hooked to the top and the wide angle lens with the tulip on it made her look like any other want-to-be professional photographer. She raised a brow and gave a small smirk.

"Your cell phones suck," she admitted and that small tone got me to smile. "You want this place translated, I'm going to have to actually see the words, so get ready for multiple flashes, bright lights and me, swearing at the top of my lungs because of shadows. So," she looked directly at Dean, "stay out of my light."

I smiled as she turned and made her way towards the fort and the man waiting at the door to what looked like it was the entrance of the tunnels, with Castiel right behind her. Dean shook his head, took my hand gently and the two of us followed after, seemingly unarmed.

"I get the feeling she doesn't like me." Dean spoke softly, keeping the conversation between us as he gently released my hand.

"She likes you just fine, she just get drawn in like the rest of us, keeps her mind on the case instead of whatever else is emotionally going on around her." I watched the way she stopped and talked to her contact, noticed the way she shifted, before I placing my hand on Dean's arm, stopping him. "Listen, try not to touch her while she's working."

"Okay, that's an odd request," he narrowed his eyes at me, "but, it wasn't as if I had any intention of groping her."

"No," I rolled my eyes, "that's not why I said it." I rubbed the bridge of my nose and smiled, "she has a hair trigger, and she'll probably punch you if you get into her space too quick."

"Oh, so she's kinda like you on a bad day, if you were a foot taller and your swings actually hurt." Dean grinned down at me.

All I could do was scowl at him, "screw you, jerk."

He laughed as I walked away.

Bee was right, you didn't want to get in front of that light, but at the same time, I didn't even want to move. From where I walked behind her, I could make out every symbol on the walls beneath the graffiti and I was terrified. I could only make out a few of the letters, mostly the Enochian, the Akkadian and the Greek, but the rest was lost to me.

Dean held the Colt at the ready, Cas had his angel blade, but I was lost in my own world. We moved in a line, each of us taking our own pace as Bee stopped often and snapped away. Dean and Cas talked in hushed tones as we moved through the tunnels, but I was caught up in the strange way the light bounced off the layers of paint on the concrete.

"How long has this fort been here?" Bee questioned, stepping closer to the wall.

"1860," I whispered in reply, stopping at a spot on the wall that seemed hollow, before taking a step back. The lines were strange, what looked like drips of paint morphed into some of the strange hieroglyphs that I had been looking at earlier, but the pattern was off. "Bee," I called out in a hush tone, "co'mere."

"What?" She snapped, but I knew the moment she turned to me because she gasped. "Ali, step out of the way."

I continued to back up, unable to take my eyes off the emerging art. There was a mouth, a wide gaping mouth, blackened by the swirls of words, until it disappeared into the darkness in the center. Further up, those black circles became eyes, two murky things that stared down into me even as unseeing as they were, and the firm grasp of Dean's fingers around my upper arm was the only thing that brought me out of the trance this picture had put me in.

He yanked me back against him as Bee snapped away, the flash going off one right after another. It was as if the small tunnel filled with just the sound of the snap, the light of the strobe and I forced myself to breath, hearing nothing else but the way I pushed the air out before my world went black again.

"There what is," Dean's voice whispered as a cool cloth came down across my forehead and I fought to open my eyes. Blurry at first, the room came into being slowly before I could focus on the man who was sitting beside me on the bed. He wasn't looking at me that moment, but over at the table where Cas sat handing pictures to Bee, who tacked them to the wall. "I don't think that one goes there."

"What do you know?" Bee snarked, but I could see the smile when she turned. She paused when she saw that my eyes were open, flicked her gaze to Dean and back at me, which had the man turning in my direction.

"Hey, there," Dean said softly, leaning over to tuck his hand under my arm, which helped me sit up. I closed my eyes as the pressure from the headache started to wane. Cas walked over, sat down next to me on the second bed, and reached out, gently pressing his fingers to my forehead. It only took a moment for the warmth to make every pain disappear. I smiled at him, his blue eyes filled with worry before I felt Dean shift and find the spot right up against me. "You doin' alright, Kid?"

I nodded, taking in the room, the fact that all of the bags were sitting in front of the dresser and Bee was now standing there with her arms crossed. "What the hell happened?"

"You passed out," she shrugged, as if it were an everyday occurrence that a hunter fainted, "but, now that you're awake, I have a few questions for you."

"Can it wait for coffee?" I begged, pleading at her with my eyes, but Dean was on the ball, handing me a warm, medium cup filled with Dunkin' Donuts coffee. "Thanks, Dean."

"No sweat," he grinned. "Kids called too, Nick wanted to let you know that he got the other two to their dad's."

"How thrilled was he when you answered the phone?" I grinned because Dean and Nick had an understanding, which went along the lines of Sam was good, but Dean still had to prove himself.

Dean shrugged. "He knows what we're out here for."

"You said you had questions," I blinked away the fog as I settled down closer to Dean's side, holding the coffee as if I wanted to hug it. Bee nodded and stepped back, giving me a solid view of the board.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

I wanted to say _duh_ because who wouldn't remember a face on the wall. "An open mouth, gaping eyes, like something stuck in an eternal scream. It was right there on the wall."

"Is that what you saw?" Her tone wasn't questioning my certainty of it, but there was something in it that made me think twice before I nodded.

"Yeah, why?" Bee grabbed a few papers from the counter, print out of the pictures she had taken and brought them over to me. I felt Dean slip from the bed as the colorful swirls of paint and the concrete filled my vision, but he was back just as fast. Bee sat down next to Cas on the bed beside me but my focus was on the pictures. "What is this?"

"The spot where you saw your face." She answered quietly, and I placed the cup down on the nightstand between the beds while I moved, placing the three pictures out along the comforter in front of me.

Nothing, there was nothing in these pictures, nothing but artist tags, random hieroglyphs, but certainly no face.

"I don't…" I brought each one up again, closer to inspect it, and I shook my head. "I don't understand, it was there."

"Of that, I have no doubt," Bee sighed, taking the picture from me. She walked back to the dresser and picked up the small 4x6 picture that I had brought with us before slowly retracing her steps. She handed me both and I nearly dropped them.

"What the hell is this? Some kind of sick joke?" I moved from the bed, hitting the floor with unsteady legs since they seem to suddenly turn to jello but I shook it off and made my way towards the door.

Dean was there before I had it open, a hand on the small of my back, one on the door handle easing it closed. "Okay, why don't you just slow your roll and listen to what the woman has to say."

I looked up at him, realizing for the first time that he was there, looking down at me with a sadness in his eyes that went straight to my heart. Dean Winchester was a lot of things, a hardass, unstable, ready to fight at the drop of a hat, but never, ever so open with the emotions that were flitting in his eyes and I sighed. I let my arms slip around his waist and hugged him closer, feeling his hand come down to ghost over my back while the other rested in my hair.

"I don't want to listen, Dean, I just want…" I gripped his shirt, tugging the fabric into closed fists, "I need Sam."

"So do I, Kid, so do I, but going in half-assed is only going to get you killed." I could feel his lips against the top of my head as he talked, the feeling of the scruff on his chin sticking to my hair and I focused on that. "Now, take your happy ass back to the bed and listen, just listen, because your friend is actually pretty fucking smart."

I nodded, it's all I had in me to do, and let him lead me back to the bed. He sat me down on the inside edge, facing Cas, who looked at me with concern, defeat, and something that was either apologetic or constipated, I wasn't sure. Dean reached behind me, grabbed the photos and sat down, handing them back to Bee.

"Okay," I steadied myself, stiffened my back and took a breath, "tell me what's going on."

"I think you found it," Bee replied, taking the two photos, "or more to the point, it found you."

"Oh, great," I rolled my eyes, as she handed me the larger photo. "So, I saw a face and your camera captured…"

"Not a damn thing," she shrugged as I looked down. There wasn't a face, wasn't a swirling vortex of words that lead to a murky pool, there was just graffiti. "You seem to have stumbled onto the doorway."

"Oh, yeah, perfect," I sighed. "Why exactly do you think that?"

"This," she handed me the second picture, the small one that I had taken, and watched as I compared it to the first, "is the last picture you took with your cell phone."

"How do you know? I printed these out before we got to you." I snapped, still comparing pictures and the silence in the room made me look up. Bee seemed a little guilty but she said nothing else before my gaze snapped over to Dean, who was only leaning back, casually on his hands. "You hacked my phone, didn't you?" Dean looked around the room, less than innocent and I smacked him lightly in the stomach with the back of my hand. "I told you to stop doing that."

"Hey," he smiled, protecting himself as he turned slightly away from me, "this was for the case, not because I wanted to look at the nudes that were in your _special folder_. You should really erase those after you send them to Sammy, people could hack your phone."

"Asshole." I growled and went back to the photos, neither denying nor confirming his little accusation. "So, it's where…"

"I believe it's the doorway, yes." Bee nodded without letting me finish. "Your friend, Lynx, told you about a woman, Matilda Le Fay?"

"Briefly," Cas added, "she didn't specify why, but that if we wanted to get to Sam, Le Fay was the way to do it."

"I think I know the reason," Bee moved to grab a book on the desk before she came back, flipping through the pages. She stopped, narrowed her eyes as if she was reading over her own work again, and then handed it over. "Morgan Le Fay was King Arthur's sister in legends," I took the book and placed it on my lap, feeling Dean lean over my shoulder, "but she was also believed to be a powerful witch, rivaling Merlin. The Le Fay's have been there through every facet of lore even if they weren't specifically mentioned, so, it's not hard to follow the lineage down to this Le Fay."

"You're saying Matilda isn't just a witch, she's…"

"Avalon," I whispered, as if all of my thoughts had converged into one and Bee looked up. "She took Arthur to Avalon."

"In some aspects, that's pretty accurate, but that's not exactly where she brought him," she tapped the book, "at least, not according to this."

Looking down at the book, I started reading over the script before me. Another twist on the tale of King Arthur and his knights, of Morgan and her attempt at the throne, but this was different, it had a twist to it and I felt my hands shaking as Dean took the book from my lap and continued to read.

"So, Le Fay lead Arthur to the City of the Dead?" I laid back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"_SAM!"_ _My voice echoed into the emptiness, even as his started to get further away. There was nothing but darkness, though I knew I was turning in circles. "SAM!" I could hear him calling my name, telling me there was nothing to be afraid of, telling me not to move, just before he faded and I felt the tears falling. With one last breath, his fingers disappeared from my grasp. "No."_

I shook out of it, looked up at Dean, who was leaning over me with a brow pitched high, his hand resting on my stomach as I shook and I tried to smile, but he wasn't at all convinced and you could see that in the worry that filled his green eyes.

"Sorry," I whispered, reaching up to run my fingers over his cheek. Dean just shook his head and shifted as the phone in his pocket vibrated. "That's probably Danni, and you should definitely get that."

"You okay?" He finally spoke and waited for me to give my response before he back away, grabbed the damn thing from his pocket and placed it to his ear. "Dan?" And, out the door he went.

Cas was still sitting on the bed as I sat up, staring at a spot on the floor, and I patted him gently on the shoulder as I stood and made my way towards the wall, going over every photo there. Bee was right, my cell sucked because these pictures were clear as day. Bee looked up from the table and waited as I leaned in and shook my head.

"All of these are basically a warning," I shrugged, ran my hand through my tangled hair and narrowed my eyes at the pattern. "Like a weird little nursery rhyme that no one could crack. So why did it take Sam and not me?"

"You said it yourself when you woke up after he was gone," Bee replied, which got me to look over at her, her eyes only on the puzzle of hieroglyphs before her. I waited a moment before she finally looked up at me. "Dean."

"They took Sam because of his brother?" I crossed my arms, looked out the window at the fading light and watched him pace the parking lot, phone to his ear and some sort of strange look on his face.

"No, they didn't take you because of your connection to Dean," Cas spoke up, which took my gaze away from him and turned it on the angel. "I wasn't sure in the beginning but I am now after the incident. You were meant to be drawn into the doorway, but instead you hovered on the outside, because Dean was standing there. You said you felt him when you woke up after Sam was taken, because it tried to seperate you."

"Cas," I rubbed my forehead and sighed, "whatever clues you think I'm going to pick up, I'm too damn tired to put together, so please, just spit it out."

"The tether locks you to another person on this plane. Your soul, and Dean's, are connected by it. They only managed to take Sam because he wasn't linked to someone, but you and Dean…"

I closed my eyes and raised a hand, "I get it. Not an empty vessel because no matter what I'm tied to this reality and they can't bring me into the City." Saying it out loud made me stop and think just for a moment before I suddenly was on my way out the door. I stepped up in front of Dean, making the pacing stop and I held out my hand, "keys?"

Dean pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at me like I had three heads. "What?"

"Keys, Dean," I mumbled, grabbed the waist of his jeans and stuck my hand down in his right front pocket.

"Whoa, Handsy," He snapped, trying to yank back but I already had the bullet in the palm of my hand and was off to the trunk of the car, "what are you doing?" I didn't answer him, which I knew would only make him more irritated that I had invaded his personal space and gotten up close and personal with his pocket. "Danni, I'll call you back," he whispered, "everything's fine, I think she's having a coronary. Yeah, bye."

Dean's shadow loomed over me as I rummaged through the trunk before his arm reached out and his hand was holding my wrist, really grabbing my attention.

"Take a pill and tell me just what the hell you're doing in my car." He whispered even as I met his eyes, those green orbs burrowing into me as I shifted away and started handing him small bottles from the lower right-hand corner of the trunk. "What is all this crap?"

"Locator spell," I replied and grabbed the last of the bottles, sticking them in any pocket that would hold them, before I backed away and reached up for the trunk. Dean stopped me from closing it by bracing his arm against it.

"We tried that already, even your little demon said that Sam wasn't able to be found." I rolled my eyes, took a breath and waited for him to stop fuming.

"Demons lie, Dean," which was a constant comeback for involving demons, and I rolled my eyes. "We went at it wrong," I shook my head, not sure I could explain it while my brain was going a mile a minute. I shoved the rest of the stuff that I held into every pocket of Dean's jeans, coat, even the top pockets of his flannel and made my way four doors down to the main office, the towering man right behind me. Stepping up to the counter, the young man with the bright brown eyes looked at me slightly confused before he glanced at Dean, once before those now frightened eyes were back on me. "Hi," I smiled, or tried to, "do you have some sort of tourist map of the area?"

"Over on the rack," he said with uncertainty, which had me turning towards the four-foot tall wooden rack that held everything from a wine-trail guide to the local baseball team, "are you looking for something specific?"

"Just one of the whole area, or whatever you got." I flipped through, caught a few of them, and held them up, grinning at him, "thanks," and was out the door, Dean following close behind me.

"Gonna explain anything, I mean anything at all?" He seemed so damn impatient but I wasn't budging, the things inside my head were going about a thousand miles a minute and I couldn't stop to think until we were back in the room and I was kneeling beside my own bag. I heard the contents of every pocket dump on the table before his hands were bracing my shoulders. I stood, letting him take me with him, and turned in his arms. "Al, you need to talk to me. You're manic, and with your powers, that's not okay. I can feel them building up, so, before you blow a gasket," he paused, eyes scanning over my face as his hands ran up and down my arms, not keeping me locked down anymore, "talk to me."

"We went about it the wrong way," I whispered, trying to keep the shaking feeling from my voice because my whole body was vibrating with the power that he mentioned. _She_ was awake, _she _was pissed that Sam was gone, but I had ahold of that power, for now.

"You said that, but wanna clarify?" He leaned down, bringing those green eyes into my line of sight, filling my space with nothing but him, trying to ground me. "Okay," he took in a deep breath, something I automatically followed and let it out, "try again."

"Any spell you use tries to find the person, where they are, what their doing, blah, blah…" I started.

"Yeah, and last I checked Sam was… is a person and it didn't work."

"A whole person, Dean, they locate the whole person, and Sam's not…" I stopped and swallowed, feeling my blood pressure rise. "Sam's in two different places and that was why we couldn't get a lock on him, because the biggest part is off in the wind."

"Okay." He didn't seem really convinced, even as I slipped out of his touch and laid the map down on the table where Bee had moved her stuff. Gathering the bottles I started working out the ingredients, listening to the words in my head, which, oddly enough, sounded a lot like Rowena was giving me tutoring lessons on spells. "I get that, so what are you doing now?"

"You and I are tethered." I shrugged, stepped closer to him and grabbed his hand, tugging him towards the table. "Cas said it, Bee said it, but Sam wasn't. He's not really linked to the Earth, I mean, not his soul, right?"

"They couldn't take you because they couldn't separate us?" Dean eyed over Cas, like he was looking for confirmation or an explanation before moving back to stare at Bee. "Am I getting this right?"

"For the most part," Bee agreed, but neither the angel nor the hunter moved as I held Dean's hand above the map that I had spread the herbs and oils over. "Whatever is shaking around in her head is way beyond my knowledge of any magic, Dean, this is all her."

I grabbed my blade from the back of my belt and sliced across his ring fingers. Dean jumped, reached out and grabbed my wrist, glaring down at me. "OW!" He dragged it out to two syllables as he snatched his hand back, "what the actual fuck, Ali?"

"You are tethered to him," I replied and stepped back, taking a match book from my pocket. I snapped one off with a shaky hand, lit it on fire and looked up at him, "by blood, Dean, you and Sam are connected by blood."

"You're finding his body," he whispered, like he was finally getting it just as I let the match drop. "No!"

He reached over to grab a shirt, one that he had put on the chair at some point because it was his flannel, which I assumed he was about to use to put the fire out, but he stopped mid-swing to watch as the flames only danced on the sigil, burning the map and not the table beneath. The map paper itself blackened until the only thing that remained was a small charred square with a street name in the middle.

"Sam," I whispered as I reached over and picked it up, not caring how oddly possessed I probably looked and brought it up to my face.

"Well, son of a bitch," Dean sighed, and I felt Cas step up beside me.

"If this truly is where Sam's body is, we need to find him now." Cas whispered, desperation in his voice. "The longer he stays in the City of the Dead, the larger the chance that we may lose him for good."

"One problem," Bee spoke up, gaining the attention of the two men that seemed to blanket me with feelings of uncertainty, "we don't know what kind of monster is riding him, so, what do we do for protection?"

**Chapter 3**

The house that we sat in front of, all crammed into the Impala, was completely ordinary, which didn't bode well for what we needed to accomplish because nothing was ordinary in our line of work. This one, however was just a bit more… mundane. IT was a two-story, cookie-cutter house with a half-porch that held one of those old wicker swing things, and potted plants, but considering who owned it, they were just that… plants.

"Great, we're about to go knock on Joan Clever's door and we got nothing on what kind of magic she has." Dean huffed from the front seat. I smirked as I slide forward to rest my head chin on his shoulder and felt him shift.

"What could be worse than fresh baked pie?" I whispered and felt him turn his head until his lips rested against my temple. "She's a Le Fay, Dean, they've been around since the time of _God only knows when_, what kind of powers doesn't she have? So, we go in prepared for everything, and we don't get disappointed."

"Or killed," Bee added as she ruffled through her backpack.

"Right, or killed." I sat back, grabbed the first-in bag from the spot between my feet and grabbed the spectrum out of its hiding spot, giving it a once over before stuffing it in my boot. I glanced over at Bee, hoping to figure out just what she was thinking but I found she was sitting there staring at me. "You okay?"

"A Le Fay," she spoke softly, as if she could hide a conversation from the two in the front seat. "No one's gone up against one in… well, I don't even know how long, are you sure your demon can handle being so close to her?"

"Does everyone know about my Sith?" I sighed, sitting back and Bee looked away. Well, there was my answer. "She'll be fine, I think I've had enough time to learn how to control her." But, I wasn't completely in control as I grabbed the door handle, snapped it open and got out, not slamming it shut, because I just didn't need to hear Dean bitch. The problem was, I wasn't sure she was under my control, not with anything that had to do with Sam. I had turned to watch the road, not wanting to face anyone at that moment, but when Dean slowly closed his door, I knew my small reprieve from the uncertain looks was over. He didn't outright stare, but I could feel his glances as he rested his arms on Baby's roof. "I got this, Dean."

"Yeah, and if you don't," his voice was low, a warning, and definitely one I heeded, "I got you."

"Thanks." What could I say to that? Dean was still the one that was in charge of locking me up should that side of me get out again, but it had been two years almost and I had only had one incident where she came out full-force, and the reason behind it was, in my opinion, justified. I moved to walk by him, purposely around the front of the car so that I could lay my hand on his back, and let my fingers slide along it as I stepped away. I knew his eyes were on me, but I didn't care, I wanted Sam back and if this woman knew how to help, then, screw it, it was time to go. "Com'on, let's get this done."

She was waiting when we topped the last of the porch stairs, Dean and Cas reaching her first, but her eyes seemed to be locked on mine. She was short, still a bit taller than me, her silver hair was long and wavy, cascading over her shoulders like some sort of shawl, which was quite the contrast to the actual knitted shawl she wore that had so many colors in it that it was nearly blinding.

The dress she wore was old, flowing, and in a pattern that would have matched her shawl if there had been any pattern at all. This woman seemed to be scattered in a million directions and that was just from the sight of her clothing alone, but when I met her eyes, I knew that she was completely sane and older than hell.

"I expected you earlier," she smiled, staring me down, as I stepped through the barrier that Cas and Dean seemed to create, but her eyes flickered up to Dean when he pushed himself right in behind me when I stopped. "Oh, my, I knew about this, but I didn't realize how strong it would be."

"What are you talking about?" Dean snapped so quickly into bitchy hunter mode that it almost gave me whiplash if I hadn't felt it run along the tether. She was pushing his buttons and he just got there so this was going to be a fun ride.

"Now I know why they picked the two of you," she smiled, as if he question didn't count before she looked up at Cas, rolled her eyes as if an _angel_ was not that big of a deal, but those bright, knowing eyes narrowed when they landed on Bee. "Well, now, aren't you unexpected."

"Excuse me?" Bee questioned, stepping up, but Cas reached out a hand, placing it gently on her arm, which only stopped her minutely from taking out the old woman.

"Well," Matilda sighed, pushed the screen door open and stepped side, "come in before the cats get out."

When she said cats, she meant _cats,_ like the size of the humans in the musical. They were all over the place, and a lot of them had that look, like they knew just what was going on. I shivered at the thought that maybe they weren't felines at all, maybe they were her victims, or her enemies as she lead us straight through the house to the enclosed porch in the back. A table was set up for five, like she really did know we were coming and she gestured for us to take a seat, until Dean tried to sit beside her, tried to put me between him and Cas, far enough away so that she couldn't touch me.

"I'm sorry," the little woman said with so much authority that Dean nearly stepped back, "but she," and those knowing eyes were on me, "sits here."

Locking my eyes with Dean's green ones, I moved around him and took the chair she offered. With the five of us settled, I noticed Matilda's eyes had fallen on Bee one more time.

"How is she unexpected?" I blurted out, not waiting for the pleasantries to continue, because I needed answers and the fact that there was a red haze around my vision told me _she_ needed answers as well. Dean only shifted until his knee was touching my thigh, contact to hold the demon at bay. "I mean, if you saw us coming, you would think you would have seen her."

"Oh, my dear, I most certainly saw her, but sometimes it's hard really see a person until they are right in front of you." Matilda smiled, but that didn't answer any of my question. "Take you for instance. The power you unleashed between your dealings with the King and the God Killer blades should be ripping you in two, yet here you sit with your other half completely under control, not only that but it…"

"She," Dean interrupted, like it was just natural for him to correct anyone who knew. He never looked at her, kept right on going with the way he was eyeing over his surroundings, looking for escape routes, immediate dangers, anything suspicious.

"She," Matilda corrected, "has evolved. To feel so fiercely protective of not only both Winchesters but their angel as well." She smiled at me. "No one could have predicted that."

"So, I'm some sort of bet in your world? How long can this little human last with the bloodline of an angel and demon running through her?" I wanted to growl, felt it deep within me as _she_ seemed to puff up, like defense was her only option.

"No, as a matter of fact, word about you is rarely spoken, you seem to incite fear, almost like that character in the wizard books," she faded off like she was looking for the title somewhere in her memories but after a moment she just shrugged. "But, a wizard you are not, and that will definitely work in your favor."

"Tell me how to get Sam back." I was amazed how quiet the others were, how they seemed strangely enamoured by this woman, but her spell didn't work on me. "You walked Arthur right into the City of the Dead, tell me how to get Sam out."

"Assuming he wants to get out," she shrugged.

"What does that mean?" Dean was shaken out of his trance, but that question, it seemed to keep going on repeat with him, and I knew there was something up because Dean wouldn't need clarification on much of anything. "Sam wouldn't just stay there, not with Ali out here, not without family."

"But, he isn't without family, Dean Winchester. The City of the Dead isn't filled with monstrous creatures that want nothing but to consume your soul, at least not in the way you believe." She smiled, and I suddenly saw the crack in her mirage. "The City of the Dead is a heaven for those who would embrace it, where their happiest dreams and memories come to life. Samuel…"

"It's Sam," Cas spoke up, oddly animated, like that had woken him up.

"Yes, I suppose it is." She grinned before sitting back with a cup of tea. "Sam may be completely happy with the wife and brother he has there, complete in a way that will never happen in our reality. No monsters to hunt," her eyes went over Dean, "no distance between those he loves," they raked over my form and the demon inside shivered with anger, "no more death and displacement." This one was aimed at Castiel. "What would Sam want out here when he would have everything in there?"

Dean stood suddenly, shifting past me fast enough to grab the older woman by the shirt. Cas stood, ready to break Dean away, I reached out, touched the back of his thigh with my hand, trying to steady the anger that flowed through him, but Bee never moved. My eyes rested on hers, on the way she seemed strangely collected, until I saw the tiniest movement of her hand, and the shift of white between her fingers.

"Tell me how to get my brother back," Dean's voice was low, deep with threats of endless pain and torture, and I felt my heart race for a moment before it settled.

"You can't," she shrugged, and that took my eyes from Bee to the woman beside me, her small hands resting against the one that held her, but her gaze drifted to me. "Only she can."

"What?" I whispered, watched as Dean slowly released her and he took a unsteady step back, which Cas caught until Dean was beyond tripping. "What do you mean only I can?"

"Brothers always change," she whispered, shifted forward in the chair, and she thought twice about reaching for my hand when a low rumble came from Dean. Her smile, though, only grew with it and she gave me a lazy wink. "Brothers fight, they lie, they doubt, but you… no matter what you've done to him, he always comes back."

"He comes back to Dean, to Cas, what makes me so different?" I needed to get up, to move but those eyes had me locked down.

"Love is different between two people, Girl, never doubt that," she sighed, like I was some stupid little thing and she cocked her head to the side. "It wants you, you know. The City begs for you to join, but with you tied to another, they know it's going to take more to get you there."

"Like taking Sam," Bee spoke up. "So, you want us to send her in after him knowing full well that something that powerful wants to take her?"

"It's the only way," Matilda stood, make her way over to a small desk and opened several doors.

Her movements had Dean suddenly behind me, his fingers brushing the back of my neck, not only to calm him down, but to send reassurance along the line. Matilda turned, a necklace in hand and made her way back to me. She held it out, a small bone that dangled at the end of a cord. It was curved like the fang of some sort of large animal, but etched into it was symbols, ones that matched almost every language we had come across in the photos.

I held out my hand, let her set it in the middle of my palm and _she_ shifted, straightened and _liked_ the power that came off it. I swallowed back the doubt and shivered at the way it made the demon move, before I looked her in the eyes.

"What is it?"

"A key," she gently curled my fingers around it. "The doorway calls you, but it just can't reach out and grab you. With this, you will be able to enter and exit without issue, but there is one thing you might need in order to retrieve your lost love," she whispered as she leaned closer. "Within the hieroglyphs is the secret to locking that door. Your friend," she glanced at Bee, who still seemed to be playing with the small thing in her hand, "she knows just how to find it, but you need his body."

"I know how to find him," I sighed, closing my eyes because finding him was one thing, looking at him without him being the man I knew was going to be something completely different.

"I have no doubt." Matilda stood, glanced over the four of us and moved, like she was about to escort us off the property. Dean waited until Bee and I were close before he went first and Cas bookended us from the back. She really was escorting us out. She pushed the door open and waited as we exited before pulling it tightly shut. "One word of warning, Dean Winchester," her sights locked on him, "don't come back."

"What?" Apparently, being told what to do was a shock to his system. "Now, look, lady…"

"It's in your blood, as a hunter, to become obsessive over things you don't really understand," she was staring him down, like she was ten feet tall and bulletproof. "I'm older than time, and while I usually enjoy a good fight," her eyes moved from him to me, "I have a feeling you'll have more than enough on your hands before this is through to come looking for a witch of the old ways." She sighed, like a disappointed mother and stepped back, taking the heavy wooden door in hand, "good day."

And, with that, she slammed it shut.

Sitting back in the hotel, I held the necklace up and looked over the writing on it. Bee was playing at the table as Dean took apart the Colt beside me on the bed. Cas paced, eyes to the heavens as he moved with his arms crossed.

"Stop playing with it." Bee scolded without looking at me.

"How is it a key? What does this even freaking mean?" I mumbled, still letting the thing spin, but that was when I saw it, "hey," that got her attention and I stood to make my way over. Leaning over her shoulder, I held the necklace at eye level and watched it twist, first one way, and then the next. "Tell me that isn't what I think it is?"

"Oh, I think it is exactly what you think it is," she let out a breath, like there was no way it could be that simple, snatched it from my hand as she stood and moved towards the pictures. After a moment of quiet contemplation, she turned and looked from me to Dean, and then finally to Cas. "I think you three should go get Sam."

"You mean Sam's body?" Dean's voice was just this side of irritated, but it didn't seem to bother Bee, she just nodded at him and went back to staring at the pictures. "We still didn't figure out what the hell she needed to protect herself from this _city_."

"I think the old lady answered that for us," Bee sighed, "this… key, it's also got a spell on it, it's the way in and the way out, but what she said, about locking it down, I might need a minute to figure that out, so, now would be a good time to go collect your brother."

St. Luke's Hospital wasn't exactly the place I thought we would find the… whatever was possessing Sam, but there he was. His hair pulled back from his forehead in a little bun, just enough so it wasn't falling in his face, but the rest of it was down, dressed in maroon scrubs with some sort of lanyard on.

From what I could see, tucked behind Dean at the counter as he was signing in Cas for some sort of test, which Cas was doing a horrible job at acting broken in anyway, was that _Sam_ was part of the radiology department. He was smiling, flirting with another nurse, checking out the small iPad that she held up, going over notes, before he reached out a hand and ran it down the woman's arm. Deep inside, _she _bristled with the need to take someone's head off.

"Radiology?" Dean sighed, shaking his head, "Sam won't even come anywhere near an x-ray machine, he's had this phobia about them since he was five and broke his arm jumping off the shed. Something about what he saw in the room. Honestly, I hate hospitals, they're like a congregation room for all sorts of things. Dead people. It smells like dead people in here."

"Dude," I sighed, knowing Dean was only bitching because he was on edge, "you dig up coffins for a living, you smell dead people all the time, like really, really dead people, but you're bitching about hospitals."

"Okay, dying… there's a difference, you know." He rolled his eyes and that was the end of that discussion.

"Castiel Novak?" Sam's voice coming out of that body nearly had me on the floor when the three of us turned and looked at him taking up most of the doorway.

Dean put on his poker face, Cas grimaced like the "head injury" he had was really bad, either that or he was constipated, and I hung back, moving slowly past him as we entered the corridor. He looked me over, those ever-changing eyes taking me in.

"Hey, Cas, why don't you tell," Dean looked down at the nametag and he glanced at me before rolling his eyes, "why don't you tell _Tad_ what happened?"

_Tad_? I mouthed more to myself than to Dean, who stepped up behind Sam… Tad, and placed his hand on the grip of the Colt that was hidden in the small of his back.

"It was foolish," Cas stated with as much conviction as he could put behind his lie, "I was texting Dean as I walked down the street, wasn't watching where I was going, and I didn't look up in time." Cas stopped, looked at me, and gave me just this look that asked if he really had to go with that storyline. "I ran into a pole." I tried to hide the smile as Tad nodded, a small smirk on his face. "I don't remember much after that, not until Dean started asking me questions."

"You hit it hard enough to pass out?" _Tad_ asked, and I tried not to smile.

"Apparently," Cas looked mildly amused at the fact that I found it just a bit funny, but he sighed, the annoyed look on his face coming back full-force, "I was in a hurry."

"Okay," Tad nodded, "we'll get you checked out."

Dean ducked back beside me, looking for his chance, even as the man in front of us started to question Cas about pain, vision, stability, before Dean took two steps forwards and shouldered him into a small hall. Cas had moved that same distance ahead, fast enough to make sure the door to the janitor's room was open, the auto-lights coming up.

Tad held his hands high, holding on to that iPad for dear life as he backs quietly into the corner, Dean's gun centered on his forehead. He doesn't put up a fight as I closed the door behind me, locking it tightly, in fact, did does a very Sam thing… he clenches his teeth, grinds them a little, getting that jaw to shift before he holds his chin high and takes in an impressive breath.

"So, you're the ones I've been waiting on," his voice is deep, rough like Sam's when he's angry, dangerously angry, but there isn't anything in the way of actual violence from whatever is inhabiting the body before us. His eyes scan over Dean, take a moment to really look at Cas before he sets his sights on me. "Should have known the minute I saw you, humans are such primal creatures, and this one has such a strange reaction to you."

"Not sure if that's a compliment or not." I tried to stay calm, saying it through clenched teeth as he raised a brow and gave me that sideways grin.

"Definitely a compliment," he whispered, shifting his eyes back to Dean. "I'm not going to fight you, even if I think I could take you down before you can get that fired off." Oh, cocky on top of flirtatious, great. "I'm surprised it took you two weeks to find me."

"Didn't know that you were walking around in my brother's meat suit." Dean scoffed, hands still on that gun, with deadly aim, and my heart skipped at the thought of him actually having to use it. "Why aren't you going to fight? What do you gain by not trying to get out of this?"

"A ride home," the Tad inside shrugged, "this place is loud, it smells funny, and there's so much death."

"Unlike your City?" Cas questioned. Tad looked him over, as if really seeing the angel under the vessel.

"I've been there for centuries, it's my home, there's nothing out here for me."

"Then why come out and play? Why not stay?" Dean's voice was low, trying not to attract attention from the outside world, but also carrying with it that promise of pain should Tad shift the wrong way.

"You're not given a choice," and maybe those five words solidified it for me, but I believed him.

Stepping forward, much to Dean's dismay, I reached out and placed a hand on that solid arm I knew so well, but it wasn't just a gesture, it was a test, and the demon in me surged forward. The heat inside flared, the vision of Sam's body swirled red like the blood in his veins, and the darkness moved like smoke, but _she_ was curious. This creature, whatever the hell it was, wasn't evil. It was dark, sure, everything had its darkness, but I couldn't tell is what I was looking at was Sam or Tad.

Nausea swept through me as I let go and reached out for the wall instead. Cas was beside me as soon as the vision cleared and I grabbed ahold of his jacket, fighting to stay upright. "Dean, fall back."

"You're kidding, right?" He didn't want to believe, didn't want to give up the upper hand but after a moment, his arm lowered, and I knew he felt what I did. "So, what are you? Some kind of demon boy scout?"

"Demon is such a broad term, what I am doesn't exist anymore, has all but disappeared from your history," Tad said with such conviction that I was pretty sure he was insulted, "I know because I looked."

"You looked up your own genealogy?" Dean seemed put out by this more than the demons seemed offended that we wiped him from history. "Something you find on Ancestry dot com or did you just Google search?"

"We were the top of the food chain for hundreds of years, Winchester, of course I looked it up." The bile rose in my throat as he stated that with just as much sarcasm and wit as Sam would have pulled off, and I felt Cas' hand tighten just a bit on my shoulder. "Now, we are nothing but simple, arrogant… things, that can be killed by a blade and two blood-filled mighty have fallen far."

"So, smoke out of my brother and I'll send you far enough back into hell that history won't have meaning." Dean was itching for some sort of fight, but Tad just sagged back against the wall and sighed, not giving in.

"There are rules to the City," Tad sighed, "simple rules, but rules nonetheless. The only way out is through a soul."

"You have to go through them?" Cas asked, his anger mounting at the thought, but Tad smiled the way Sam always did when he was amused because he was misunderstood.

"A soul comes into the city, and you are allowed out, like a two way street. One in, one out." He shrugged. "They took Sam because they couldn't take you." He was looking right at me with all the want and lust that Sam always had in his eyes when we were together and my stomach rolled. "They wanted you because of the demon inside you, to bring you both into the fold, but they couldn't," his eyes flashed to Dean, "because of him."

"Not anything we haven't heard before, Buddy, but if you're so quick to want out, let's go." Dean raised the gun again, gave him a wave towards the door and a quick smirk. "Time's ticking."

Tad gave him one last smirk, kicked off from the wall, and walked by, eyes trained on mine as he did, with Dean at his back and the gun pressed to his spine. The demon inside shivered at the challenge, or the thoughts of violent sex, but all I felt was fear.

Bee narrowed her eyes at him from the doorway of the adjacent room while Dean tightened the ropes around Tad's wrists, securing him to the chair. Cas finished the wards on the room, something I could hear from where I sat on the bed, flipping through the journal, and Bee slowly turned to me.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, which made me look up.

"For what?" was the only thing I could ask before I went back to reading.

"Having to see him like that."

"That's not him." I shrugged and flipped the page. "But, thank you."

"What are you looking for?" The sound of the boys' voices in the next room became mumbled background noise as she sat down on the second bed.

"Something he said got me thinking," I answered, still keeping to scanning the journal, "knowledge of them has been wiped out of our history."

"Knowledge or the creatures themselves?"

"Exactly." I put down the book, open to the last page I had read and ran a hand through my hair. "I'm freaking exhausted, running on steam."

"So, sleep." She shrugged as if it were as simple as that. I hadn't slept well in two weeks, not when every time I closed my eyes, slipped into the darkness and opened myself up, the memories of Sam fading away invaded. "You're afraid."

"You're damned right I'm afraid," I snapped, not meaning to, so, just for a moment, I stopped and inhaled. "I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be." She got up from the bed, moved over to the table and fired up the laptop. "At least, lay down."

I nodded, finally giving in and curled up on the bed, laying on my side. It wasn't long before for the darkness to cascade over me and for that numbness of sleep to take over, but, it didn't last, not before the sound of Sam's voice echoing in the blackness shook me awake.

Dean's arm was draped over my waist, his body pressed against mine, the same way he always slept when he was close, his breathing even and steady, his fingers twitched against my stomach and I sighed. This was going to be a long night. Bee took over the second bed, her pillows tucked around her, while she buried herself deep in the thin motel comforter.

Shifting out from under Dean without waking him was a feat only magicians seemed to have mastered because he stirred slightly, his eyes narrowing at me before I gently reached out, ran a hand down his cheek and heard him inhale.

"Where you goin'?" He mumbled, not loud enough to wake anyone else but deep enough to command an answer.

"Bathroom, unless you wanna come hold my hand." I smiled back, which was my usually answer, well, this one was more tame. I had taken to throwing in perverse and sometimes irritating suggestions when I replied to his barely there protective streak. "Go back to sleep, Dean."

"Hmm," was all I got from him before those eyes slowly closed and his fingers flexed once more, telling me he was falling back into whatever shifting landscape rolled through his mind.

I stood from the bed, heading to the bathroom, but stopped at the adjoining door. I counted to ten in my head, then backwards to one before I stepped in, looking at the man who was sitting in the chair. He sat just like Sam, knees wide, head hung low, all that hair curtaining over his face and I felt my heart race.

He knew I was there the moment I stepped into the room, and he lifted his head, eyes going straight to mine, locking me down with them. I just wanted to run my hands through his hair, take those stray locks and push them away from his face, but all that faded when the edge of his parted lips turned up just a little into a smile.

"What are you to him?" His voice was low, but still that deep lusty voice that sent an invisible shiver through me. I took another step towards him, waking _her_ from the restless slumber I could feel inside. "Everytime I look at you, I just want to possess…" that grin got wider as he narrowed his eyes at me, "no, that's not the word, because there is already a second power within you." He paused at his own words. "That's it, I _want_ to be inside you, feel you around me, the heat of you, the sound of your sighs." My heart thumped hard against my chest and before I knew what I was doing, I blinked down at him, standing between those open thighs. "I want to own you."

I couldn't help but touch, as my demon giggled within, and if she could jump for joy, she would. I started in the middle of his forehead, ran a finger down, following his hairline, until I stopped just under his chin, his head tipping back as his eyes closed, like the contact was something he hadn't gotten, but craved.

"You really aren't him, are you?" I let my fingers continue, gliding down his neck and over his collarbone. "Sam doesn't own me. He's never taken what he wanted from me."

"_She _would like him to," Tad snarked, his eyes still closed, breathing heavier as my hand traveled, and those eyes slowly opened, ever-changing eyes that seemed to glow as I leaned in closer. "_She_ has some very strange fetishes, and yes, I can hear them. See…" his eyes moved from mine, following the line of my face, down to the way the flannel I wore dipped low between my breasts, having popped a button in my sleep, "them. Most people wouldn't think that way, want that kind of violation."

"I'm not most people." I answered, standing straight as I dropped my hand from his body, took one step back and watched as he shifted in the chair, a cocky grin on his face. "And, _She_ doesn't control me, so fetish or not, it's not happening with you."

"Because I'm not him? Or because I'm wearing his body?" That sly smile turned into a full-on grin, teeth and all, flashing me back to a time where Sam's darkness took over and the violence that one gesture forewarned rivaled even mine during the solstice.

"Because I have standards." I shrugged, leaning back against the dresser. "You want to go back to the City, I want Sam back, so tell me how to close the doorway once we get him out."

"Kiss me." He deadpanned and I laughed, not loud enough to wake the others but definitely sarcastically. "Just one kiss, Porter, and I will tell you everything I know."

"How about I kill you?"

"Then you won't get Sam back."

"No, but I certainly will take more pleasure in it than putting my lips on you." I could see it now, the difference between them. It wasn't Sam's face I was looking at anymore, but a stranger's. Just small subtle differences that changed every feature on him. "Tell me."

"Kiss me," he countered again.

"Screw you."

"I was just going with a simple kiss," he winked, shifted so his hips rolled slowly up and those legs widened, "but if you really do have that kind of fetish, I'm all for it."

"And, if I ever see you touch her, I won't hesitate to cut your cock off." Dean's voice snarled from the bedroom door. Both Tad and I looked at him, the anger on his face was terrifying, like he could blow at any moment, and he clutched the demon blade in his hand, fingers tensing and relaxing. "Al," he glanced at me for just a second, "what are you doing in here?"

"Just," I looked at Tad, debated for a second and shrugged, "talking."

"Well, storytime is over," Dean snapped, "let's go."

I crossed my arms, moved from the dresser and headed in his direction, but Tad had other ideas. "I see it now," he lowered his head, eyes staring at me once again from under that curtain of hair, "I see why your demon has such a thing for violent control. Look at him," Tad blinked lazily before eyeing over Dean and coming back to me. "I'm sure he takes that fetish to the next step, so much more than the way Sam takes you."

I walked up to him, not even thinking about what I was doing before it happened, and swung. My fist connecting with Tad's solid jaw sent ripples of pain through my knuckles, but it also had him turning away, head whipping to the side. I leaned down, close to his ear, but he only tilted his head in my direction, letting his temple rest against my forehead, as if he was about to turn and kiss me, but that was all he touched.

"When we get you out of him, you'll wish to hell I sent you back to the rack, _Tad_," I reached out, and turned his face towards me, blood trickling down from the corner of his lip, "because I'm going to rip you apart."

He only smiled at me, lips turned up just slightly as his eyes locked on mine, growing murky with the power of the demon and _she _responded with a flash of red before I turned and walked away. I slipped passed Dean, shook off the feeling of the rage that swirled inside me and headed straight out the door.

Staring at the dark sky, unable to see the stars though the pollution, even in a town like New Bedford, I waited. It was only moments before the door opened and the sound of Dean's boots hitting the old asphalt filled my ears, but it felt like a lifetime before his hand was turning me towards him, before his arms were pulling me in and I was wrapped in the strength of his hold.

"It's not him," he mumbled, more to himself than to me, a reminder that Sam was still gone, "it's not him."

"No more standing around," I sighed, my fingers following his spine as I listened to the beat of his heart. "No waiting on Danni, no more translations. It's time, Dean, it's time to go in and get Sam back."

"I know, Kid," He placed his lips against my head and took a deep breath in, squeezing me a bit tighter. "Come on, let's go get your husband back."

I smiled at him, "not your brother?"

"He won't be Sammy until he's well enough that I can kick his ass for not calling in backup on this one." Dean whispered, struggling to keep his voice light as his hands slid down my arms and he backed away to look at me. I saw it in his face though, the need to protect us both, and my smile faded. Dean nodded, knowing I had caught a glimpse of it, before he kissed my forehead and walked away, yelling back, "I'm getting coffee, and that crap that Bee calls tea."

I smiled, not that he could see, and moved back into the room. Cas stood in the doorway, watching Tad with curious and narrowed eyes, like he could almost see the demon underneath moving around in Sam's body. I stopped at the table, made myself comfortable behind Bee's computer and picked up the small necklace that the witch had given me.

"Hard to think this little thing is what's letting us in or keeping them from entering back into our world." I said softly, glancing at the angel.

"You should go back to bed." Cas sighed, but I shook my head and inhaled deeply. Cas left his post at the door, knowing the demon in there wasn't going to go anywhere. "Ali," he squatted down in front of me and placed both hands on my thighs. "He's a demon."

"And, I still wanted what he was offering." I replied in a barely audible voice, but I knew the angel heard me.

"That doesn't matter, Ali, you didn't do anything to Sam." Cas was getting frustrated, I could see it, feel it vibrating through his fingers. He had a demon on the other side of the wall that he didn't understand and a brother that was missing for it. I turned in my seat to face him completely, running my hands through that thick mop of hair. "This is infuriating."

The door open as Cas lowered his head and Dean looked a little lost as he walked in and spotted only the top of Cas' head, ducked down low in my lap, before the crude smile came up on his lips and I shook my head at the perverted thoughts I knew was running through that thick skull.

"UP and at 'em," Dean barked, not as loudly as he would have if Sam was in a dead sleep, but definitely with the intent of getting Bee out of bed. His only response from her was the way her arm rose slowly and flipped him off. "Yeah, she's definitely one of your friends."

"I've been awake since Ali got out of bed." Bee stated, her voice clear of any drowsiness, and as she sat up, she also seemed wide awake. "You can't move in a room without waking me up."

"So, you…" Dean looked a little shocked, and embarrassed.

"Yes, Dean, I heard."

My head snapped in his direction, and it was comical to watch Dean fight to find the words, like a fish out of water before he just grabbed a cup of the coffee and pretended that nothing was wrong.

"Well, now that we're all awake…" I started to speak but Dean put up one finger to hold me off, still sipping at his coffee, "okay, now that we're all semi-awake. What's the plan?" Bee sat up and moved to the end of the bed, Cas slid into the chair at the table beside me and Dean still refused to get up. "Oh, come on, there is no way the three of you hung out while I slept and didn't come up with some half-brained scheme to get us into that city."

"Oh, we know exactly how we're getting in." Dean snarked.

"It's getting it locked down that we're having an issue with." Bee replied. "I haven't found the sigil yet."

"That's because there isn't one," Sam's voice filled the room and we all looked up to see Tad standing in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest.

**Chapter 4**

Dean moved swiftly, gun in hand without spilling his coffee, as Cas slowly rose, the angel blade slipping from his sleeve. Tad held up his hands, unfolding them from his chest and shook his head. "I just want to go home, so what's the point in fighting you. Just," he sighed, a total Sam move, and shrugged, "put them away. I'm not going to hurt anyone."

"Not what it sounded like from where I stood earlier." Dean growled, and Tad's eyes rested on mine.

"I wasn't threatening, _Dean_," the name rolling off his tongue with sarcasm, "I was offering."

"Again, not from where I stood." Dean moved up to him, gun still a second away from firing but down at his side. It was like watching the brothers any other day of the week, but this was a demon and Tad could break him in half. I was between them before I could blink, my back to Dean but my eyes on both. "Ali, move."

"No, we need him," I sighed, looking up at him the best I could, "and we really need to get going, so," I turned my sights on Tad, who was looking down on me, eyes flowing over my features, "now what do you know."

"There's no sigil." Tad shrugged and I reached back to place my hand on Dean's right arm, stilling the motion of the gun, "but, you have the necklace, I assume."

"How did you…?" Cas started, but the sarcastic laugh that came from Tad stopped him from finishing the questions.

"The Le Fay have been trying to shut the door for centuries," he moved towards the dresser, which made me step back into Dean, and as a unit, the two of us gave him little space to get past that. "She brought Arthur into the City so many years ago, but there was an uprising. She intended for him to stay intact, to not let a soul out, as is the rules."

"Arthur didn't come back," Bee finished, and narrowed her eyes at him. "That's why Arthur and Camelot are regarded as mythological and not real."

"Magic existed long before the start of your history, and will continue long after, but can you imagine what would happen if people understood that the legend was real?" Tad questioned, shaking his head. "To know that Arthur, his knights, the Holy Grail, all were real, all happened, would lead to the discovery of Avalon and the City of the Dead. The hell that would be unleashed unto your little world would be catastrophic."

"Tell us how to close it," I sighed, rubbing my hand across my forehead. Tad took a step forward, leaned down and looked me in the eyes.

"Trust me, Little Girl," his voice was thick with lust, "what you have inside you is powerful enough to bring the whole gate down with one thought."

"That doesn't help me." I snapped.

Tad winked, backing away as Dean flicked the safety off the gun, and turned to Bee. "You have that little trinket that Le Fay gave you, correct?"

"What of it?" Bee questioned, but she stood and made her way to the table, picking the necklace up from some hidden spot, or it was that I just hadn't noticed it sitting there. Cas moved with her as she brought it closer to Tad. She held it up, eye-level for the both of them and cocked her head just a bit.

"Spin it," he whispered and I realized that I hated this demon, more than anything because he knew what he was doing with his voice, especially when his eyes caught mine every time he spoke. Bee did and I found that my gaze was locked on it. "Written in dialect from every culture before the rise of man, this little thing holds the puzzle to free entry into the City, even if you're tethered, but it also provides its own link to the outside world."

"No shit," I whispered, watching it spin. My heart raced as I watched certain symbols begin to glow and I glanced quickly from the necklace to Tad, his eyes were locked on mine as he smiled. "Pen."

Cas handed me the closest thing, Bee's black fine-tipped marker and I started drawing the symbols that flashed at me. The world around me started to fade, the only thing I saw was those bright letters, swirls and bumps, like old stenography. Just as I wrote the last one, I heard it.

"_Ali,_" Sam's voice whispered inside my head, dragging me back to that night, the way his blue-green eyes filled with worry, the feel of my hand in his. "_Ali, don't let go, whatever you do, hang on."_

"Sam," I felt the tear slide down my cheek even as my knees gave out and I braced myself back against Dean. The world came barreling back into focus and I ran towards the bathroom, making it just in time for the dry heaves to start. Cas' hand was gentle on my back as I moved to control the spasms before I leaned back against the tub. Tad was still in view, Dean crowded the floor in front of me and Bee stood in the doorway. Sweat-soaked and shivering, I held my hand, palm up in her direction, "I hope you can use this."

She scanned over my hand, narrowing her eyes since I was pretty sure my hieroglyph was just as messy as my handwriting and she nodded, "it's perfect."

And, she disappeared back into the room. Cas stood, running a hand over my head, and grabbed Tad's arm as he passed by, leaving Dean to sit down on the floor in front of me. He pulled one leg up and tucked the other under, resting his arm there.

"You heard him, didn't you?" Dean whispered, his tone begging to know if Sam was alright and I nodded. "Did he sound hurt? Was he okay?"

"He told me not to let go," I smiled, letting my body relax, but I reached out to take hold of his fingers, "he's okay."

Bee stepped quickly up to the door, which had us both looking in her direction. "I got it."

I dreaded that tunnel system, and if I never saw it again after this stupid trip into the darkness, it would be too soon. Dean walked in front of me, gun at the read, Tad moved between us, hands tied at the wrists, Bee twirled the blade in her hand as her eyes moved over the shadows beside me and Cas brought up the rear, eyes peeled and angel blade in hand.

The air was thick with power, humming through me like I was sitting in the Impala, but the demon inside, who usually found it pretty exciting, hide quietly within. I knew something wasn't right if she wasn't bouncing around waiting to get out, and I knew Dean felt it because he kept glancing back at me, a look of worry on his face.

"It should be right here," Bee whispered and I stopped, looking at the wall, swallowing hard because there was the hollow face. I stepped back, letting her come forward. "You see it, don't you?"

"Yeah, ever seen the movie '_Candyman'_?" I grinned, nervously, twirling the spectrum in my hand, "it's kinda like that. You know, with the bees and stuff."

"No need for visuals, I think I got it." Bee sighed, her face going grim. "For this to work, you have to touch it."

"Touch it?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yes, touch it." This was going to get old quick.

"You want me to touch the vortex that sent me to the ground?" I laughed, uneasy and placed my hands on my hips as I paced in a circle, my eyes never leaving the swirling eyes of the hidden doorway on the wall. "Yeah, perfect."

"It's the only way," Dean spoke up, but I could hear it in his voice too. Bee stepped forward, placing the necklace around my neck and she arched a brow.

"This will get you in and out, with one free soul pass for Sam." I nodded as she spoke. "We have the sigil we need to lock it down, we just need to have the two of you cleared of the wall."

I reached back, took hold of Dean's hand, and breathed in deeply twice. As I faced the wall, I could feel her, the demon, and what I felt gave me no great comfort. She shivered, no quaked with fear. My demon was afraid of the city, as much as she was draw towards it, and I closed my eyes before suddenly turning to Dean.

"Promise me," I whispered softly, "promise you would let go, that you will hold on until Sam's back in this world."

"Sweetheart, until you're both at each other's throats again, I'm not backing off." He tried to smile, but it came out weak with worry. "Go get my brother, tell him to hurry his ass up, and the two of you get back here before I had to gank that demon."

"No matter what happens you have to lock it down, Dean, you have to shut the gates."

"Not without you on this side of the line, Porter." His face was a mask of determination and I slowly nodded. "Now, go. I got you."

Staring into the swirling words on the wall, I felt the rest of the world start to fade, just as the necklace began to glow. I tried to hold onto consciousness, as I reached out a hand, but everything around me started to fade, and Dean's hand slipped from my fingers, just like Sam's had two weeks ago.

The darkness changed to suddenly light, as if someone had thrown open a door. I raised my arm to block the _sun_ and when the light faded, I was standing in the middle of a park, green grass under my feet. Turning slowly, I took in the towering buildings on one side that made up the horizon, and they looked strangely familiar, but the other side was a waterway, and this park was nestled in the center, filled with people.

"How am I in Vancouver?" It was a stupid question.

Of course, I wasn't actually in Canada, this was a dreamscape, a way for the city to keep you complacent but still, it was oddly accurate. Of all the people that surrounded me, walking, biking, lazing in the grass, it was the sound of a dog barking that got my attention and I looked off to my left as a Golden Retriever fetched a ball that rolled close to my feet.

He seemed to dance around me, as if he knew me but then sniffed my leg, huffed out something that sounded a lot like human disapproval and took off again. Following the line the dog ran, I watched as he nearly tackled Sam to the ground when the man crouched down to get the ball. My heart thumped in my chest, my breath hitched and for a moment, I was taken aback. Sam was there, and smiling.

I slowly moved towards him, watching as he played with the dog and my thoughts traveled back to the series, about their childhood, and memories of talking with Sam about the one time he had a dog.

"_Bones,"_ he had called him, "_Dad hated him because he had this thing for bringing home animal bones from anywhere we happened to be. It's why Dean doesn't like animals in the Impala, thing stunk to high Heaven when we had the dog, but he could track a monster with the best of them."_

Sam looked up as I stopped, the smile on his face only growing larger as he stood to full height and covered the distance between us. His hands were on my cheeks, thumbs skimming over anything he could touch and his lips were softly pressed against mine, but only for a moment. He pulled back, as if this wasn't something he should be doing and schooled his expressions before he let me go and moved to pick up the ball.

"Alison," he said my name with just a bit of confusion, "what are you doing here, I thought you had to work today?"

_Alison_? And, the demon bristled. "I…" I cleared my throat, "I came to take you home."

"I thought we discussed this," he said with just a little bit of irritation, "you wanted a few days, I was giving you a few days."

"Wait," I narrowed my eyes at him, "trouble in paradise?"

"What?" I watched the happiness he had been feeling wash from his features. "Trouble in… you remember the fight last night, right? About the kids?"

"We had a fight about the kids?" Now I was really confused, Sam and I never fought about any of the children, including Jack. "Exactly what was it about?"

"Alison," he rubbed his forehead and sighed, "look, Dean and Danni are coming over tonight to pick them up for a few days, take them back to the ranch."

"Your brother owns a ranch?" I shook my head of the image of that and smiled.

"Is there something wrong with you, Alison?" Worry clouded his eyes, making him step forward, but I was the one that stepped back this time.

"It's Ali," I replied, and that got him to stop.

"You hate that name," he whispered.

"No, I really don't," I smiled, finally closing the distance. "What's my name?"

"Alison Winchester." He replied, frankly.

"On your lips, maybe, but no, it's not." I took a deep breath, "Sam…" I let my fingers brush over his jaw, saw him let those beautiful eyes close and the tension ran from his body, until his hand was wrapped around my left hand and he was staring down at my ring. "Sam?"

"You put it back on." He swallowed.

"I've never taken it off, not since you put it on there."

"No, um, you were wearing the other one this morning."

"I have another ring?" I laughed and his brow furrowed.

"For our anniversary, I gave you a two-carat solitaire."

"And, I wore something like that?" I laughed, but that got him to drop my hand and step back. "Sam, this isn't your world."

"Yes, yes, it is." His reply was more than confused, he was on the edge of panic. "What is wrong with you?"

"Dean owns a ranch? We have this life where you can afford a two-carat diamond?" I took in his expressing and shook my head. "What do I do for work?"

"You're a nurse at Vancouver General."

"AND, we live in Vancouver? Sam, I have a part-time job that keeps me entertained." I shrugged, taking a deep breath. "We don't have a dog, you live in a bunker when you're not with me, and we hunt monsters."

"Monsters?" He whispered, his eyes slowly fading back as if he were reliving memories, and he swallowed as his eyes caught mine with a glimpse of recognition. "Ali?" He doubled over, as if sucker punched and that made me move, placing my hand on his face as he struggled to breath, but I could feel Dean along the tether before I looked out at the horizon. "What…"

"Sam, we have to go," I whispered, my eyes locked on the black clouds that started to roll over the buildings. "We have to move."

"Yeah," he nodded, but there was still some confusion in his eyes.

_Move it now, Ali!_ Dean's voice barked through and I looked around.

The water had turned into a murky black. We were surrounded as the people in the park turned in our direction. Slowly, I slid the spectrum from my boot, thanking whatever power there was that it had traveled with me, and I took Sam by the hand, our eyes locking.

"You ready?" I whispered.

"Always," but I could tell he was still unsure.

Twisting the knife in my hand, I stepped back beside him but the first wave didn't come from in front, it came from the side as Bones shook off his golden fur and sprouted wings. The dog became a living nightmare, and something that resembled the hellhounds from Ghostbusters.

"Move!" Sam yelled, grabbing my arm as the two of us ran in any direction we could. There was a horde of them, moving like a single wave of blackness, and all Sam had was the branch he picked up to fend them off with. There was nowhere to run, no way out when the battle began, but we stayed side by side.

_She_ roared, ready for a fight, and I steadied my feet, letting my eyes cloud over.

"Ali, no!" Sam yelled as the world darkened and all I saw was the red outlines of the things running towards us. Sam stood by me, a red hue around him, and I smiled. "Ali, don't let her out."

"It's the only way we're getting out of here," I whispered, feeling his hand slip around mine.

"Then, let's do this together." He stepped closer, let me feel the heat from his body and I took a deep breath, felt the rage, and then let it go.

I don't remember much, not clearly enough to give someone a play-by-play, but I do remember the action, the feel of the spectrum hitting its targets. I remember the drag and the pull, the endless times that it raked along bone and flesh, and I remember the smell of blood, not coppery like ours but burnt and decayed.

It seemed to go on forever, until the strength of even the demon couldn't hold on and I found myself on my knees, staring up at a tall, lanky monster, ribs showing, no meat or muscle to his bony skeleton like body, only sunken flesh and the tip of whatever the blade he held was made of to my throat. His eyes were bright red against the black flesh, and his grin was that of dripping fangs. He raised the blade, aiming to strike and I closed my eyes. Behind me, I could hear Sam fighting still, but weakening with each grunt, until I heard him fall.

"Do it," I whispered, sighing out an exhausted breath. "Just do it."

"_ALI_!" The voice was inside my head and outside my body at the same time, a deep mix of not only Sam, but Dean, and I let my head tip back, exposing the artery there, wanting this to be quick. "_NO_!"

The demon in me flared to life as I felt a familiar presence, one just as dark as her, and the scream that echoed through the battlefield stopped every creature in its tracks. I opened my eyes, blinking the scene around me to life and turned to Sam, not five feet away as my capture turned and looked up at the sky.

A large black silhouette hovered there, with a wing span of more than twenty-feet across, shaped more like bats than angels, black and leathery. Large, clawed feet and hands hung from the body the wings supported, and the bright red eyes locked onto the spot where we sat. It opened its mouth, full of sharp, white teeth. Whatever my captor was, this was so much more, and it screamed, piercing the silence that suddenly surrounded us, loud enough to cover my ears, but _she_ jumped for joy, shivered with want and I knew just who the hell I was looking at.

"Move," I whispered, eyes wide as Sam stared at me in shock, "Sam, move… now!"

The two of us stood, and did just that. We moved, ran full speed away from the creature just as _Tad_ swooped down from the sky. The battle began again behind us, the sound of dying creatures filled the air, and just when we reached the end of our strength, the small trinket around my neck began to glow.

In front of us, a small crack started to grow, like a rift opening up, something small enough that we could duck into, but the uncertainty on Sam's face only gave me pause.

"It's the gateway," I whispered, reached out and took his hand, "Dean, Cas, and Bee are holding it open, we have to go."

"Are you sure?" Sam's eyes were locked onto it, as he squeezed my fingers gently. "Ali, you have to be sure."

"I am," I nodded, touching the thing around my neck. "This is a key, a way in and out, but we have to go now."

Sam nodded, giving me only a second's notice before he pulled me towards the rift, halting only at the sound of the scream from the creatures behind us. Both of us turned, only in time to avoid the reach of the end of a staff. Sam ducked, the blade scratched against my arm, but it missed anything vital before the one who had me on my knees before, smiled down at me and raised the staff again.

The sound of wings beating against the sky, of air moving around them filled my ears, blocking everything out and just as the creature thrust forward again, Sam's hands were on me, shoving me back through the rift.

The last thing I saw was Tad's clawed feet wrapping around Sam's shoulders and arm, lifting him off the ground, and then darkness surrounded me.

I sat up, quickly, inhaled as deep as I could get and listened as Dean's voice invaded.

"NO!" He screamed and as my vision cleared, I could see him pounding on the wall. "SAM!" But, panic set in as he ran his palms over the concrete. "Cas, get him back!" He snapped as if the angel could do anything against the fact that the door had closed. "Get him back!" Tears ran down my face at the image of Sam lifted into the darkness. "SAM!"

"Sam," it was a quiet echo of Dean's pain but loud enough for the green-eyed Winchester to hear it. He turned, eyes brimming with tears, and I was in his arms before I knew it, surrounded by his warmth as I shivered on the wet tunnel floor. Cas and Bee moved, spray paint in hand. "No," I whispered, eyes going to the sigil that they sprayed over the spot where the vortex had been. "No, Cas, no." I begged as the tears ran, hands gripping Dean tightly, "please, please, don't."

"Shh," Dean hushed me as he pulled me tighter, as if that were possible.

"Sam," I wanted to close my eyes, to not watch them lock it down, but I couldn't. I couldn't even blink. "Cas, please!"

"He's gone," Dean whispered, his own voice filled with pain, "he's gone."

"No!" I snapped at him, wanted to punch something, because Dean would never give him up that easy. "No, he's not!"

"We've tried," he countered, "you've been out over an hour, we've tried everything to get him back, but…"

"It's not true," I shook my head, my body clenching, my hands white hot from holding on too tight. "Dean, please, say it's not true."

"I'm sorry," he hiccuped his reply and that was it, I broke.

Dean wouldn't give up Sam, but I knew that there was no way. The City was locked down, Tad had taken him, the only other thing to do was go back to Le Fay, to find another way in.

Hours, it had been hours since I had been thrust back into reality by Sam's own hands, but yet I couldn't move, my head resting against the cold concrete as I knelt before the wall, hands pressed on the dried paint. Dean's even breathing was the only way I knew anyone was behind me, otherwise, the world had narrowed down to my own heartbeat and the sound of water hitting a puddle somewhere down the line.

The phone rang, disturbing the rhythm, and, for the fourth time, Dean ignored it. When it rang again, I sighed.

"Answer it," I mumbled, and Dean exhaled before I heard the sound of his keys, and the phone being withdrawn from his pocket.

"Hey," he whispered, before the sound of his steps moved away, leaving me, once again, in the quiet of the rhythm.

The rhythm beat on, the drip of the water, the sound of my breathing, the beat of my own heart, but that didn't quiet the sound of his voice. At first is was soft, like he was fading away again, just like that first night, his hand slipping away from mine in the darkness, but slowly it grew, not in strength, but in volume, sounding uncertain, lost… and I listened closer.

"Ali," the voice was weak, familiar, and not all that far away. I picked my head up, looking further into the tunnels. "Dean?!"

Slowly, I came to my feet, staring down into the darkness, spectrum in my hand as the shadows formed a person when he seemed to slip out of of them. Sam stood there, whole, and real, and completely confused.

"Ali," he whispered again before I could move, and suddenly I was in his arms, being lifted up to wrap my legs around his waist and he pressed me against the wall, letting it help him keep me up when his hands tangled in my hair as he branded a kiss on me, one that I never thought I would feel again. When he slid back to breathe, his forehead pressed against mine, I reached out to place my hand over his heart. "What happened? Where were you?"

"Here," I managed sigh, "I was was here." I said softly, because there was no explanation. The sound of boot heels in puddles rushed quickly towards us, but stopped dead, water splashing against the stone.

"Sam?" Dean's voice was wrecked, just like the rest of us, but I knew the sound of his doubt that his eyes were deceiving him.

Sam slowly lowered me to the ground, make sure I was steady on my feet before he stepped away, taking cautious steps towards his brother. Dean was on edge, demon blade out and twirling in his hand, there was no way to approach but on guard, and Sam did just that. I watched him stop, the muscles of his back and shoulders tense, but I could also see Dean, how his eyes went over every inch of Sam, and he knew… instinctively knew, that the man in front of him was his brother.

The blade slipped from his hand, clanking against the floor, echoing through the tunnel. Dean reached out, grasped him by the shoulders, and pulled him in for an embrace that brought tears to my eyes.

"How did...?" but Dean stopped, swallowed back the questions, and squeezed him tighter, "you know what, I don't wanna know, I don't care," he stepped back, eyes going to me for a only a second before they were back on Sam, "you're back, that's all that matters."

"Yeah." Sam backed away, patted Dean on the chest and smiled, lightly, "so," he glanced back and forth between the two of us, "can we go home?"

Through the slightly cracked door that separated our rooms, I could hear the hushed words of Dean and Bee's conversation. I smiled at their relaxed tone and felt Sam shift under me. He was still asleep, the battle inside the city had taken its toll on him and he crashed almost as soon as he hit the bed, but it didn't mean he was letting me go.

"Why bees?" Dean had asked, peeking his head into the room. He raised two fingers, giving me a small wave, which I returned with a smile before he disappeared again. "Some kind of code or something."

"It's a nickname," she replied, somewhere in the room, "like Cas, but mine is Bee, shortened from Becca which is Rebecca." And I could almost visualize her shrugging as if it wasn't that big of a deal. "Why, got something against bees?"

"No, no," there was a smile on his voice, "just always curious where Ali gets her friends from, cause you're all a little weird."

"Jones," she deadpanned and I was sure Dean grimaces, "not the nutcase daughter but Jones himself. She helped me on a case way back in early June about two years ago. Hockomuck Swamp area. Honestly, she was pretty green but still better than most hunters out here."

"Did ya get it?" Dean was curious now.

"Oh, yeah, crispy-fired, and everything." Bee laughed, remembering how reluctant we both were to get ourselves involved alum anything with swamp history. "Good times."

"I bet." I heard the clink of the beer bottle that Dean set down in the table.

"You shouldn't be eavesdropping." Sam's deep, sleepy voice whispered against the back of my head and I curled up closer, listening to his heartbeat. "You should be getting some rest."

"You needed it more than me, I just couldn't leave you." I sighed and felt his fingers brushing the skin under my shirt. It would have tickled if it wasn't one of the best feelings on the world. "How did you get out? Tad just yanked you away."

"Valenseck," Sam whispers, smiling, "Tad was just his human name but there he was Valenseck and he said I couldn't get out the way you did, it would have ripped me apart."

"What?" I sat up, leaning over him. Sam smiled, reached up and pushed my hair behind my ear. "Why? They said it was a ticket out for you and me?"

"The key you had, it was good for you, but what they meant was you and _her_." He tapped the middle of my sternum. "A soul and a demon, both of which are part of you, Al. There was another way out, and he took me through it."

"I don't understand, why?"

"I don't know, but it took awhile to get there, and it took a lot of energy to get out." His hand slid up to my cheek, cupping it gently. "It doesn't really matter, does it? I'm back, I'm here and it's because of you, all of you."

"Yeah," I whispered, fighting back the fear that was still buzzing through me, "that's all that matters now. But, that doesn't mean your brother isn't going to kick your ass still."

"I can't wait to see him try." Sam licked his lips, eyes going to my mouth and he pulled me in, claiming everything I offered.

"Where to next?" I asked as Bee pulled the helmet down.

"Midland." She shrugged.

"What the hell's in Midland?" I asked, totally confused.

"Don't know, guess I'll see when I get there, but Jones is sending me to Kentucky, so, hopefully Bourbon." She laughed and the two of us looked over at the boys, who were all waiting by the car. Dean was on the phone, but he waved in our direction. "Keep an eye on your boys, they have a tendency to get into trouble."

"They do, at that." I laughed. "Call on the Angel if you need help."

"Of course." She nodded and started the Ducati. "Take care."

"Watch your six." I smiled as she turned the bike and rode away.

The three of us sat at one end of the picnic table, Dean and I with sundaes in front of us, Sam with just a Coke. A few few down, as if trying to avoid the adults, was Joseph and Ari, neck deep in some conversation over their cones.

Dean finally came through and treated us all to ice cream, making good on his promise to the girl. He stuck the spoon on his bowl, held back the wince of the brain freeze that hit him hard and finally relaxed.

"Where's Danni?" Sam laughed as Dean pressed his palm against his forehead as if that would stop the pain.

"Right about now, Virginia," he smiled, but it was strained. "When she called this morning, she had caught a quick case, so when we got you back, I let her know what was up. She's gonna up here and make sure you're on one piece."

"You still haven't kicked my ass yet, so, at least we had time now." And, their banter was classic Winchester.

"Oh, yeah," Dean snorted as Sam grabbed what was left of my sundae and pulled it closer, scooping out a strawberry. "Whenever you feel groggy, Man Bun."

"Man Bun?" Sam laughed, shook his head scooped up a dripping spoonful before he flung it at Dean.

"You son of a Bitch," Dean snapped before flinging his own and Ari yelped in surprise. Joseph took her arm and they raced away from the table.

I scooted off the bench, leaving the two grown men to their food fight as I leaned back against the Impala, smiling.

The entirety of my family, my gathering, might not be there but I was damn happy for the ones that were.


End file.
